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The Cycles of Business and
Family:
The History of the Albina Fuel Company
Introduction
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, millions of
immigrants came to the United States seeking better lives for their
children if not for themselves. A majority of the new Americans found
few opportunities for advancement. Among the more fortunate was the
Arntson family of Trondheim, Norway. Upon arriving in Oregon around the
turn of the century, the Arntson family members worked a succession of
various blue-collar jobs, which allowed them to enjoy an independent,
though modest existence.
For youngest son, Sam, his energy and enterprise precipitated his
ascension into the white-collar sphere. In 1910, and before his 30th
birthday, Sam joined a promising, young Portland home fuel supply firm
called the Albina Fuel Company. Sam's arrival at Albina Fuel
approximately coincided with the company's consolidation of the Steel
Bridge Fuel Company. Steel Bridge Fuel greatly resembled its successor
in organization and size (and had even been one of Sam Arntson's first
Portland employers).
From that time forth, Albina Fuel's experience has largely been the
product of the Arntson family's hard work, ingenuity, and inspiring
leadership. Sam helped the fuel company overcome the economically
desperate periods of World War I and the Great Depression. Also, he was
unyielding in his efforts to bring Albina Fuel into the fuel oil
distribution business, even when the company's supplier, Texaco, proved
a mighty adversary.
Upon Sam's death in the early 1940s, his son, Cliff, assumed a
leadership role in the company, which, at the time was reeling from poor
market conditions and labor shortages. Cliff deftly revived the ailing
company through a series of expansion and diversification ventures.
Cliff's son, Neal, started with the company in 1958. By the time Neal
was elected Albina Fuel president 20 years later, he had moved the fuel
company into important new arenas. Now, in his 18th year as Albina Fuel
president, Neal Arntson oversees a great range of diversified
operations, the least of which is home fuel delivery. The contributions
of the father, son, and grandson, represent 130 years of combined
service to Albina Fuel. When the efforts of other Arntson family members
are considered, the total approaches nearly 200 years of service. As
Albina Fuel approaches the start of its second century, the familial
cycle continues as the fourth generation of Arntsons assume more
responsibilities within the company's various divisions.
Over the past 85 years, the Arntsons' management approach has been
characterized by diligence, resourcefulness, and a willingness to risk
diversification and try the unconventional. This liberal and adaptive
business philosophy, on occasion, caused the Albina Fuel Company to
suffer the consequences of ill-fated side ventures, but more generally,
proved an effective combatant against Portland's erratic fuel market.
Over the course of this century, Portland's fuel market has generally
been dominated by one of four major fuel products--wood, coal, fuel oil,
or natural gas. Due to inconsistent supplies and technological advances,
the dominance of each product has been relatively brief. At the turn of
the century, wood fuel had no competition in the Rose City. Coal made
inroads over the next decade and then its sales escalated as supply
routes were refined and Northwest coal mining operations began. Fuel oil
sales grew in number from the turn of the century but did not compete
with coal and wood as an alternative fuel source until the 1930s. In
more recent years, fuel oil assumed the dominant position that wood had
previously held. Then in the early 1970s, the oil embargo changed many
Americans' perception of oil heat and of oil companies, initiating that
product's decline. Within the last 20 years, natural gas and alternative
energy products and systems have played a more visible role.
Predicting the life cycles of their products was a constant challenge
for the city's fuel dealers. Another cycle inherent in the fuel business
was associated with the natural seasons. Similar to a farmer's calendar,
the annual work schedule of a fuel dealer was interrupted by a dormant
period. In contrast to farming, however, the fuel supply business was
busiest during cold weather and slowest in the summer months. Because
fuel dealers could not afford to be inactive for one quarter of every
year, pursuits during the warm off-season was a primary concern. To lay
off yard laborers and teamsters for approximately three months out of
every year jeopardized a fuel company's labor pool for the next season
because a percentage of workers did not return. As means for boosting
their incomes and retaining workers, fuel companies constantly struggled
to secure off-season work.
The industry's cycles and uncertainties presented formidable challenges
for every fuel dealer and underlay the failures of many of Albina Fuel's
competitors. The Albina Fuel Company stands as one of the area's few
fuel dealerships to not only survive but to thrive. Albina Fuel's
prosperity can largely be attributed to the leadership of Sam, Cliff,
and Neal Arntson, each of whom have fostered and promoted
diversification, sometimes out of desperation, and sometimes without
success. Significantly, though, the Arntsons' recognition that
diversification is as inherent to the fuel business as its cyclical
characteristics, has been the source of Albina Fuel's success.
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