The Kawartha Small Business Podcast · The Kawartha Small Business Podcast

191: A Business Conversation with British Empire Fuels

·43 min·1 clip

Brian and Matt open from the Thrive Podcast Studio at Thrive Coworking Community in downtown Lindsay and bring Sheila and Tim into the room. Sheila traces the family history back to the White family purchase of British Empire Fuels in 1981. The business began as a coal company in Toronto, then moved into oil and shifted to Bob Cajun before the family bought it and turned it into an oil delivery business. Over time, Robert and Greg came back into the fold, and the business grew into service and installations. She also explains that around 2014 they purchased a service company in Lindsay and folded it into British Empire Fuels, which opened the Lindsay branch and widened the company’s reach. The talk keeps circling back to what changes and what does not in a business like this. The core work is still heating and delivering fuel, but almost everything around it has changed. Delivery that used to be worked out by hand is now handled with computers and technology, which lets the team set routes and timing much more precisely. The conversation spends real time on what that means for scheduling, billing, and getting paid. The hosts treat that as plain practical value, not a gimmick. They point out that even small improvements in how a business bills, brings cash in, or manages delivery timing can make a big difference when large dollars are moving through the company and only a small slice is kept. Matt leans into the operational side and keeps the conversation grounded in the mechanics of service businesses. He talks about how the work may look the same from the outside while the back end becomes more precise and more efficient. That gives the episode its backbone. The guests answer in a way that lets the conversation wander into specifics instead of staying at the level of slogans. One thread is the move toward smaller add-on products and services. Fireplace installation, fireplace repair, barbecue lines, and outdoor fireplaces are not just side notes, but real offers that can bring people to the website and create more business. The show also makes room for how local marketing and search visibility support the rest of the operation. British Empire Fuels is presented as easy to find, easy to contact, and ready to serve customers through either office. They can be reached by text, by phone, or by a visit, and they have offices in Lindsay and Bobcaygeon. That matters because the business is not framed as a brand trying to sound bigger than it is. It is framed as a company trying to be useful, visible, and responsive. The hosts treat that as a strength rather than a limit. The episode keeps returning to those themes of service, systems, and openness to change. There is a pleasant looseness to the exchange. The hosts do not rush the story, and the guests do not sound like they are reading from a script. Instead, they think aloud about what has changed over the years and what decisions helped the business keep moving. The result is less a polished case study than a working conversation. It has the feel of people who know the trade talking honestly about how a local company survives, adapts, and keeps showing up for customers. The small details carry the weight here: the software, the routing, the timing, the website, the extra services, the office doors, the call, the text, the visit. Those are the levers the episode keeps coming back to. The conversation also reflects the show’s broader habit of turning a business interview into a practical local lesson. A family company becomes a window into how ownership changes, service lines expand, and technology quietly reshapes the day-to-day. The hosts make room for stories, but they always return to operations. That makes the episode feel useful to anyone running a business that lives on follow-through. It is not trying to sound visionary. It is trying to sound true. And that is what gives it its pull.

As heard by us

A plainspoken look at how a family fuel business changes shape without losing its core.

British Empire Fuels reads like a family business that kept adapting instead of freezing in place. Sheila and Tim walk through the White family's 1981 purchase, the move from coal to oil delivery, the later shift into service and installations, and the 2014 addition of the…

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Why you'd press play

A local fuel business story with real operational grit.

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