Jamie Oil was founded in 1989 by Keith Proia of Framingham, Mass. Before he started the company, Proia had worked for his father Sam at the family business, Crown Fuel, which was also located in Framingham. The company was named after Keith’s newborn daughter, Jamie.
Proia built his customer base quickly. He bought brand new oil trucks and built his reputation by offering quality work at fair prices. Unlike most upstart companies, Jamie offered full service 24 hours a day. By 1995 the company had over 1000 customers, most of whom were on automatic delivery. Company sales exceeded $1,000,000 for the first time in 1995. The company had five employees.
Tired of the long New England winters and the grind of the oil business, Proia sold the company in the summer of 1997. Proia moved to Florida shortly after the sale. The new company was headed by Tom Carey, of Hopkinton, MA. Carey had spent over fifteen years in the oil business. He started out working for the largest oil suppliers operating in New England, but always wanted to buy a local company. When Carey took over, the company had two oil trucks and four employees.
In 1997 the company began offering fixed price programs on heating oil to both homeowners and industrial accounts. Jamie Oil also began selling gasoline and Diesel Fuel. Soon the company was selling commercial fuel in New Hampshire. The primary line of business continued to be home heating oil and burner service in eastern Massachusetts.
Jamie Oil then bought several competitors. HB Fuel, owned by Harold Brown of Marlboro, was the first in 1999. Then came Albies Oil Service, in 2000. Albies was established in 1932 by the Rousseau family. The company was located in the north Framingham neighborhood of Saxonville.
In 2001, both Crown and Alan Fuel were acquired by Jamie. Alan Miller of Holliston worked with us up until he passed in 2015.
