| Low-key businessman gaining a
high profile By Jim Zebora
Record-Journal business editor
If you tank up on either side of Interstate 91, the odds are pretty good
you’ll be doing business with Kevin Danby.
Eight gas stations stand within a modest tee shot of the highway that
crosses the east side of the city. Danby is owner and partner in three of them.
He also distributes gasoline wholesale to four other stations, is local
Ugly Duckling car rental franchisee and owns a dozen tow trucks that scurry around Meriden
and Wallingford for his own garages and for auto clubs such as triple A.
Danby’s success has gotten him some attention.
"Obviously, he is a proven businessman on the east side of
town," said Mayor Joseph J. Marinan Jr., who appointed Danby as an alternate to the
Zoning Board of Appeals two years ago, and earlier this year made him a regular member.
"He was born and brought up in this town. The Danby name is well known."
Danby, like many business people, is a staunch, conservative Republican;
Marinan is a Democrat. So why appoint someone with philosophical and political differences
to an important city board? Because it's good for Meriden, Marinan said.
"We've been trying to reach out to the business community,"
Marinan said. "We feel their involvement is essential for the future."
Danby, who also serves on the board of the
Kuhn Center, plans to be involved in the local community and business for a long
time.
He's committed to Meriden, Danby said, "It's a great town and I
know it’s going to make a comeback. I figured I'd better stay around and be here when
it happens."
One way he plans to stay around is by diversifying his business.
Danby's, newest venture is into convenience stores - the ones that sell gasoline, of
course. He owns one such store in Portland, and has plans for more.
"Our expansion efforts are into convenience stores," he said.
"Our goal is 10 in 10 years."
For Danby, 40, it’s another change in a business he’s seen
going through many changes over the past few decades.
"It's hard work, it’s not like it was 20 years ago," he
said. "You can't get a box of tools and go into this business anymore. You've got to
be a businessman first and a technician second."
Starting out with a box of tools and a dream is pretty much what his
grandfather and father did 49 years ago. The elder Danbys opened their garage at the comer
of Broad Street and Green Road. It was a success, and as Meriden grew outward, Fred Danby,
Kevin's father, made a move to East Main Street and a new Gulf Oil station east of the
highways.
The new location was the start of a long period of growth. First a
second Gulf station next to what was then the Holiday Inn, and also an Exxon station right
across East Main from the first Gulf outlet. The prominent addresses gave them access to
travelers who would pull of the highway for gas, and to callers from the big motel needing
service before heading on their way.
Triple A towing brought in more business, and the growth of Meriden's
east side assured that thousands of local residents would pass by the Danbys' pumps and
service bays every day. |
|
Kevin, who as a youth distributed
Record-Journal
newspapers and later worked in George MacLauchlan's auto parts shop, grew more involved in
the garages as his father grew less involved. A decade ago, Fred Danby retired, and his
son partnered with long-time employee Kevin Curry, who had previously bought into the
stations, to keep the businesses on their growth curve. "Our
goal was always to grow the business," Curry said. "We started small, we made
some commitments to the oil companies, and it's been good from there."
The partners work at separate garages and have differing
responsibilities: Danby handles rentals and the convenience stores, Curry the towing and
wholesale gas distribution. Each has his own strengths, Curry said.
"We're two totally different people, that's what makes it
work."
As the business has grown, so has Danby, said one employee with more
than two decades working for the family.
"When he was a kid, before he could think things out, he'd give you
an answer," said Jack Benigni, a part-time tow truck driver. "Now he thinks
things out. He'll sit down and really think, and if he doesn't have an answer he says
he'll get back to you. He's much more mature and very fair." One business
contemporary says he has a lot of respect for Danby.
"He's sharp, quick," said Dan Roman of Roman Oil Co., who also
took over the family business from his father. "People like working with him. He gets
involved in a lot of different things, and he's willing to take a risk."
Certainly the move into convenience stores would seem risky, given the
ubiquitous competition, but Danby sees a synergy with his other businesses. The stores
will be outlets for his wholesale gas, a type of vertical marketing that has already
allowed him to cut retail prices and firm up margins.
"The guys in small stations never make any money on gas," he
said. "They can't buy right and they don't do enough volume."
Stations can pump anywhere from 10,000 gallons a month to 200,000, he
added. Already, his stations sell "several million gallons a year."
It was the wholesale business that led Danby to his first convenience
store, a location formerly operated by Marinan. "He knew about our difficulties over
there," Marinan said. "But he negotiated directly with the landlord."
Also keeping the future on track are other new ventures, Danby said -
AAA repairs as well as towing, affiliation with the NAPA auto parts organization, and a
page debuting in a couple of weeks on the World Wide Web detailing all his many services
and replete with customer testimonials.
"I figure it's a terrific marketing tool," he said.
, Visit Danby's A-1 Auto, 872 E. Main St., and
you'll usually find Kevin Danby sitting quietly behind the counter, running his business
with quick phone calls, signing purchase orders and making decisions. It's what he enjoys,
he said.
"I've been very fortunate," he added. "I've done very
well. I've worked very hard."
Perhaps the only thing he enjoys more than running his businesses -
given his healthy marriage of 19 years, five children and a summer cottage in Old Saybrook
- is being away from them.
"I'm a quiet guy," Danby said. "I do my work and go home.
I enjoy my family life a lot." |
Danby's own Smart Stop offers Cans for Kuhn drop off.
