Business Spotlight: Hawkins Petroleum comes home to new facility

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When Hawkins Petroleum Equipment Co. moved to its new facility last March, Junior Hawkins felt like he was coming home. The company, which is now at 911 W. Chestnut St., is located on a parcel of land that was once owned by Hawkins' parents. |ret||ret||tab|

Hawkins, who has 37 years of experience in the petroleum industry, was hired to run the business in 1989. Three years later, he bought the company, which has evolved into a family business.|ret||ret||tab|

In 1997, Hawkins' daughter Kristina Gardner joined the business, and she now serves as the company's vice president. Her husband, James Gardner, works as a technician at the company, selling, installing and servicing a wide variety of service station equipment. |ret||ret||tab|

"We sell, install and service almost all of the equipment you see at a gas station," Hawkins said. "We do the canopy and lights, the gas pumps, the under-ground tank and the point-of-sale computer system inside the station."|ret||ret||tab|

Although Hawkins Petroleum deals with approximately 47 different petroleum equipment vendors, the company primarily sells, installs and services equipment manufactured by Bennett Pump Inc. and The Tokheim Co.|ret||ret||tab|

"We try to steer our customers toward the best equipment that's out there," Hawkins said. "Bennett and Tokheim manufacture high-quality equip-ment. It's not always the cheapest, but we value quality both in the equipment that we sell and in our employees."|ret||ret||tab|

Most of Hawkins Petroleum's customers, which are located within a 150-mile radius of Springfield, are "independent jobbers." However, the company recently began selling, installing and servicing grease and oil equipment, which is used by the service departments at area car dealerships. The company also is attracting business from several large retail oil and lube shops. |ret||ret||tab|

Like most business owners, Hawkins faces his share of challenges. He competes with three other petroleum equipment companies for business, and finding qualified employees to hire has become more difficult in recent years because of a tight labor market. |ret||ret||tab|

In addition, Hawkins must keep on top of the latest regulations mandated by the Depart-ment of Agriculture's Weights and Measures Divi-sion, the Environmental Protec-tion Agency and the Missouri Department of Natural Re-sources. |ret||ret||tab|

Safety is a paramount concern, because the company's 10 employees work with petroleum equipment.|ret||ret||tab|

To keep abreast of changing regulations and safety issues, Hawkins Petroleum belongs to several professional organizations, such as the Petroleum Equipment Institute. In fact, Gardner serves on PEI's Safety Committee. Employees also attend conferences, seminars and training sessions that keep them abreast of how to identify and fix environmental hazards and how to stay safe on the job. |ret||ret||tab|

"A lot of our customers rely on our expertise when it comes to understanding and complying with environmental and safety regulations," Gardner said. |ret||ret||tab|

"Someone will come in and inspect their service station, list out the violations they find and tell them they need to fix everything and bring it up to regulation. These regulations are written in legalese, and most of our customers don't understand them or know what needs to be done to comply with them."|ret||ret||tab|

According to Gardner, Haw-kins Petroleum is working with the city of Springfield to up-grade several of its fueling sites to comply with EPA standards. |ret||ret||tab|

In the future, Gardner and Hawkins plan to expand their customer base to include more car dealerships, service and repair shops, and oil and lube centers. |ret||ret||tab|

The two also plan to continue to provide quality training to their employees, many of whom do warranty repair work.[[In-content Ad]]