General Info

Wilber Saneholtz and Ora McKarns were in the petroleum business long before they thought about going into business together. As salesmen and distributors of gasoline for Mobile and Shell, the two met often and developed a friend- Then, on July 1, 1968, thirty years ago, they bought the county contracts in Williams County for 'Mobile Oil, and started their own business: Saneholtz-McKarns Mr. McKarns was interested mainly in building equity, and sold his share of the business to Mr. Saneholtz after a few years. Mr. Saneholtz ran the company for many years, and now Saneholtz-McKarns is owned by Wilber's son, Jim When Saneholtz-McKarns first opened, there were only two gas stations: one in Montpelier and one in West Unity. "At that time. the majority of the business was farm delivery, " explained Jim Saneholtz. Today, Saneholtz-McKarns still distributes petroleum products to farmers for their machinery. The gasoline business has evolved over time. Until the time of unleaded gasoline, Mr. Saneholtz said, the lead in gas caused a lot of damage to engines, necessitating the existence of many small full-service stations. After unleaded gas became widespread, cars ran better, and longer, without as much demand for repairs. "During this time, the small gas station lost a lot of business, " said Mr. Saneholtz. I saw a chance to grow the business." As a separate venture from Saneholtz-McKarns ( before he bought the business ), he approached various convenience stores to see if they were interested in expanding their own businesses. "I went and offered these locations the opportunity to sell gas. It was kind of an offshoot of Saneholtz-McKarns. In fact, there were two companies." He was able to grow his own business through these ventures, and when his father decided to retire, he purchased Saneholtz-McKarns and merged the two businesses into one. Saneholtz-McKarns now owns nine gas and convenience stores in the area and supplies petroleum products to about 30 more stores in northwest Ohio.