Midwest Flyer Magazine

AT OUR AIRPORTSFuel Distributor Gives Its BestTo Aviation & To Its Communityby Dave WeimanDave WeimanNineteen miles south of Duluth,Minnesota is the old furtrading and lumber town ofCloquet, Minnesota, where Best OilCompany – a major distributor ofPhillips 66 aviation fuels – is located.Cloquet is also where Jarden HomeProducts, makers of Diamond woodenmatches, and Sappi Fine Paper North,are located.John, Chris and Mike McKinney arethe third generation owners of Best OilCompany, which started as a supplierof auto gasoline and heating oil. Today,Best Oil Company also distributespetroleum products to gas stations,convenience stores, bus companies,trucking firms, municipalities, counties,electrical generating plants, and bothjet and 100LL avgas to airports andfixed base operators at 40 airports thusfar throughout Minnesota, Michiganand Wisconsin. Best Oil Companyalso owns and operates a chain of 19convenience stores called “The LittleStores.” All combined, includingJohn McKinney of Best Oil Company atCloquet-Carlton County Airport, Cloquet,Minnesota.drivers, office personnel and retailemployees, Best Oil Company employs300 people in northeast Minnesota.John McKinney’s maternalgrandparents immigrated to the UnitedStates from Finland, and met in theUnited States in 1923. McKinney’sgrandfather, Ray Lindholm, workedfor an oil company, then built hisown gas station and became a Conocodistributor.McKinney’s parents met atthe University of Minnesota inMinneapolis, and when they graduatedin the late 1940s, McKinney’sgrandfather told his father that thefuel and oil business was not a badbusiness to get into, so his parentsbought a small jobbership in Couderay,Wisconsin.“My dad drove truck, and mymother kept the books, and thebusiness grew, and they expanded intoHayward where they purchased somestations,” said McKinney. “After seeinghow well his son-in-law was doing, mygrandfather invited my dad to becomepartners with him in his business inMinnesota. So my dad and mom didjust that in the early 1950s and boughthim out in 1961. The business has beengrowing ever since.Best Oil Company operates sixtransports and seven trailers, 24/7. Thetrailers are dedicated to either jet fuel,avgas, or auto fuel.Best Oil’s corporate offices arenext to the railroad tracks that usedto transport fuel to bulk storage inCloquet. Today, everything is truckeddirectly from terminals to customers.All aviation fuels are picked up at eitherFlint Hills Refinery, or the pipelineterminals in Minneapolis, Chicago orGreen Bay.John McKinney welcomedquestions about Best Oil Company, andthe fuel business in general.WEIMAN: John, why is it that theprice of gas at the local conveniencestore can fluctuate a lot, and the price#$%$&'(&)*')+,)-"./0."""+123)&'"456)-"+#%#718)""".: