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Harned-Durham Oil Co. Inc. of Emmaus has balanced the seasonal nature of heating oil distribution with the distribution of an increasingly popular commodity: spring water.
The 75-year-old company, previously located in Allentown, has continued to expand its service area over the past 10 years while also taking on the new enterprise.
Owner Mike Harried became a partner in the business with his father, Ralf Harried, after buying out uncle George Grant's share of the business. His father passed away, and Harried has ran the business for the past 18 years. The company had moved to Emmaus in 1973.
"We have had greater sales in each year, but the oil business in general is on an 8-percent annual decline nationally. We have not experienced that in the Lehigh Valley, and certainly the Northeast region is one of the biggest oil consumers globally.
"But consequently, if I wanted to have something to give my kids ... and I have three Of them, I wanted to diversify to see what else was out there. I looked at transmission business, franchise, things of that nature," and even the restaurant business.
"Then I looked at an ice business, and that's when we finally realized that water would be the perfect deal," helping to offset Harned's busy winter sales.
"With the oil business we are very busy in the winter, and the water business is a bit busier in the summer; you still have office sales and that kind of thing [during the winter]," but generally water is pushed out the door more readily during warm weather, Harried says.
"So we have a summer-based business and a winterbased business, and I can use my personnel to offset one vs. the other."
Harried also sees the water business as a good business move strategically, offsetting the highly competitive oil business.
"Anybody can go out there, buy and oil truck, get a CDL license and be an oil distributor... They throw an ad in the paper, they have virtually no overhead, their wife might answer the phone; a lot of guys have done this, and they are successful because their overhead is so small, he says.
However, "nobody can just jump into the water business. For you to go out and buy...