McAdams Propane Company191 US Highway 96 N , Center, Texas, United States

McAdams Propane is a Shelby County based business which has already spanned the generations with plans in place to extend that legacy well into the future.  Putting families first and giving back to the communities they serve have become hallmarks of the growing firm.  Today, the family business is operated by Billy Bob and Lisa McAdams along with son and daughter-in-law, Josh and Sharisse McAdams. But the company’s roots go back decades in helping fuel, heat and energize the growing Shelby County and Deep East Texas economy.  Lisa’s grandfather on her mother’s side, drove a truck for local butane and propane supplier Bu-Pane when former Center Mayor John D. Windham’s father-in-law, Mack Bussey owned the company.  “My dad ended up working for them and my mother worked in the office for years,” Lisa says of her parents Weldon and Jimmie Boles.  But the odds of the business continuing within the family was not a sure bet when Billy Bob took a well-paying and secure job with Southwestern Bell and he and his bride, Lisa, moved away from Center in 1980 with no firm plans to return.  His father, along with several other family members, worked for Southwestern Bell and had helped Billy Bob get his foot in the door with the giant telephone company. Their future was secure with the telecommunications giant, or so they thought.  But in 1981, Billy Bob and Lisa were presented an opportunity to work for Lisa’s father in the propane business back home in Center and decided to leave the security of his job with Southwestern Bell and return to their roots in Shelby County.  “I was born and raised here in Center, but it was still a tough decision to leave Southwestern Bell, which was something I thought I’d do the rest of my life,” Billy Bob says.  “We looked at it as an opportunity to have our future back home with our families.”  Looking back, taking that leap of faith has proven to be a positive move on multiple fronts, he says. Fast forward to 2020 and McAdams Propane and related entities not only have survived but are thriving.

Changing Environment

However, like most businesses, the company has had to make adjustments in a world where technology and more and more rules and regulations have become the status quo.  Billy Bob says the biggest changes in the business have been in the areas of mounting regulations and rules and all the requirements which go along with those. Then, he says, costs for everything from materials and equipment to labor, insurance, technology and fuel have all risen drastically.  Among the upsides of those changes are increased efficiency and improved customer service. For instance, years ago when the company received a call that a customer was out of gas, crews were scurrying to take care of them, he says.  “Since we’ve implemented a lot of changes with technology on the retail side, we just don’t get many of those ‘out-of-gas’ calls, which are  our biggest concern,” Billy Bob says. McAdams Propane now has technology in place which lets the firm know before a customer runs out of fuel.  As for most families, whether in business or not, the dynamics of different points of view can come into play.  “But I think we work well together,” Billy Bob says. “We all have our own boxes, or categories, areas that we strive, and we all work well together.”  He serves as president of the firm.  Lisa says her main area of responsibility is bookkeeping and financial details while Josh runs the day-to-day operations, he also handles human resources duties for about 90 employees and negotiates all the firm’s supply contracts.

Expanding Horizons

While Josh is an integral part of the operations today, like in his parents return to Center and the family business, it was not a given that he would eventually become part of McAdams Propane, Billy Bob says.  “Josh worked for us over summers and afternoons while he was in school,” he says. “When he went off to college and then went to work in Houston for Enterprise Products, we thought that he probably wouldn’t come back here.”  But Josh gained valuable experience working for former Shelbyville area resident Dan Duncan in Houston which came in handy a couple of years later when he returned to Center and McAdams Propane.  Billy Bob says that perspective of adding the next generation to the firm has helped propel its growth in a variety of directions.  “Before Josh joined us, we had implemented some technology, but we were a long way from where we are today,” he says. “For propane companies our size, the level of utilizing technology to the extent McAdams does is unusual,” Lisa says.  “We still consider ourselves a mom and pop operation, because we’re not like the “major” retail marketers who are nationwide,” she says. “But normally regional firms like McAdams have not yet gone to the level of computer integration the Shelby County firm has.  “We have a lot of technology on the trucks, we have tank monitors where we can monitor tank levels here in the office,” Lisa says. “Normally that’s not what you see in a mom and pop operation.”  Josh says while his mother and father refer to McAdams Propane as a “mom and pop” business, the business has grown and expanded to a larger regional presence. Lisa says adding layers of technology does not mean the company has outgrown personalized customer service.  “We can beat the competition on customer service any day and that’s what we try to do,” she said. Billy Bob says one of the aspects he likes about the technology is being able to monitor activity of the firm’s fleet of trucks with details down to where the truck is, how long it has been there and much more.  When Josh joined the family business in 2008, he brought experience in the Midstream sector of the energy industry.  “We bring an aspect to this industry that most don’t. We have vertically integrated our business to the point we can fill a 20-pound cylinder for your barbeque grill or a 9,000-gallon transport load,” Josh says.  The family started Midstream Transportation Company in 2014. Midstream Transportation currently services clients in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico & Mississippi.  Midstream Transportation is committed to the economical transport of bulk commodities including Propane, IsoButane, Normal Butane, Y-Grade, Propane Propylene Mix, Natural Gasoline, Crude Oil, Petroleum Spirits and any other LPG mix. They provide bulk transportation services and continue to provide reliable, safe transport to companies in the Southwest. Also, Midstream Transportation provides commercial flare services to the gulf coast region.