By Nathan Oster

A family business that has been meeting the needs of customers in Big Horn County since 1972 is shutting down next week, the victim of shrinking profit margins in the fuel industry and a 9/11-inspired federal mandate that it change the way it conducts business at its bulk plant.
McIntosh Oil of Greybull was founded by “Red” McIntosh, who sold it to his son Kip when he retired in 1986. Since then, Kip and his wife Cindy have been in charge, riding the ups and downs of small business ownership, building it one customer at a time and anticipating the day when they, too, could sell it and retire — with their son Clint in line to take over as a third-generation owner.
For a wide range of reasons, not the least of which was 9/11 and the regulatory changes it triggered, that will never happen, as Kip and Cindy have decided to shut down, effective next Wednesday, Oct. 1.
So what happened? Kip explained that after 9/11, a number of federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency, got together to devise rules that every bulk fuel plant in the nation must eventually meet.
The decree covered topics such as overfill prevention, total containment in the event of a leak, and site security. Homeland Security pushed the final item on that list, said Kip, noting its concern that unsecured tanks would have the potential to be targets for terrorists.
When taken together, the recommendations of Homeland Security, the EPA (or more specifically, the Department of Environmental Quality in Wyoming), and the Uniform Fire Code proved too great an obstacle to overcome. They included securing of the tanks with fences, locks, gates, cameras — “everything needed to make it secure,” said Kip.
While all bulk plants around the state will eventually need to change the way they do business, McIntosh Oil is different in the sense that it sells gas directly to customers at its bulk plant on Greybull Avenue.
Kip said the card system that is in place makes McIntosh Oil different from, say, Murdoch Oil, and the business that his brother Dane owns in Powell. “They’re governed under the regulations of the EPA, which is currently behind in its enforcement,” said Kip. “Eventually they will get caught up too, and these other businesses will have to do the same things they want me to do.”
The McIntoshes have known about the Oct. 1 deadline for compliance for “a couple of years,” said Cindy. The thing that has pushed them over the edge, to make the decision to close, is the trend they see in the  market.
“The last couple of years, it’s been pretty tough on everybody in the gas business because of rising prices,” said Kip. “The higher the price gets, the more difficult it becomes for us to make enough money to recoup the investment that is required on our end.”
Kip said he and his wife considered underground tanks, but McIntosh doesn’t own the land where the bulk plant is located; it rents that property from the railroad. “If we were to do that, we’d need to find a new place to do business, probably someplace out of town,” said Kip, adding that engineering costs would be considerable. “While there would have been some advantages (to some of the options we considered), it would have been like starting from scratch again, in a lot of ways.
“The other thing we looked at was that this is a falling market. The higher the price goes, the less and less people are going to use our products. They are going to find alternative fuels. They are going to quit driving.”
The McIntoshes both said the movement toward less fuel and gas consumption is being felt by small businesses across the country, including their own.  
They have been doing considerable business with farmers and ranchers in Big Horn County, particularly in the Emblem, Burlington and Otto areas. “That part of our business is down about 30 percent,” said Cindy. “Farmers have changed the way they do business too, so they don’t have to use as much fuel. They used to raise a lot of sugar beets; now they’ve switched to alfalfa — things that don’t require as much gas to grow.”
While the “industrial” side of the business has remained the same and the “consumer” end is up slightly, the long-term outlook is not promising, said Kip. Further complicating matters, he noted that 95 percent of their business’s sales are on a charge basis, that they must borrow money to pay the suppliers in Billings, then wait for their customers to settle their bills.
“The higher the gas price goes, the more we have had to borrow,” he said.
Put it all together, and it signaled the end of McIntosh Oil in Greybull.
“There isn’t a day when we don’t say, ‘If we just did this, maybe we could make it work,” said Cindy, her voice trailing off. “But in the end, what we always come back to is that the risk is too great.”

History
The McIntosh name has been synonymous with the gas and fuel industry in south Big Horn County since “Red” quit the railroad in 1965 and bought a Texaco bulk plant in Basin and the Texaco gas station where Murdoch Oil stands today.
In 1969, Texaco pulled its bulk plant out, consolidating and moving to Worland, which left “Red” without a job. But at the same time, George “Conoco” Scott, who purchased the Conoco bulk plant and delivery truck in 1939, was about to retire, and Conoco was looking for his replacement.
“With Dad having the experience, the bulk truck and customers, he got the job,” said Kip.
In 1972, Conoco decided to sell its facilities to its bulk plant operators, and with that, McIntosh Oil was born.
“Red” ran it until 1986. By then he had acquired a bulk plant in Powell, which he sold to his son (and Kip’s brother) Dane. The Greybull operation went to Kip. In 1986, McIntosh Oil became an independent entity, not tied to any brand.
Since then, Kip and Cindy have been building it while expanding their horizons into Burlington, where they own a garage, Burlington Car Care, run by their son Clint and his wife Melina.
With the Greybull operation about to close, Kip is going to work with Clint in Burlington, while Cindy is going to stay on as the bookkeeper for that business — and may end up looking for another job.
“It’s sad,” said Cindy. “I’m going to miss this because it’s been such a big part of our lives, and I’m going to miss the customers, too. But at the same time, it’s also exciting, the thought of doing something different.”
Added Kip: “It’ll be a relief to get out from under this huge debt that is constantly over our heads.
“The plan from the start was to buy the business, make a decent living, and at the end of our tenure, sell it, maybe to our son to take over like I did for my dad, and retire on the money we sold the business for, whatever that was,” said Kip. “But that’s not going to happen. Nobody wants this business. The profit margin is so low, whoever buys it would barely make a living while being under a huge risk.
“If you’re going to borrow three-quarters of a million dollars, you would like to make a return of 10 percent, which is what you can do on the stock market — until (recently), anyway,” he said. “Right now, we’re talking about a 2 ½-percent return.”
The McIntoshes know they won’t be the last small business to close under the weight of the new regulations.  Cindy said one official told her “there isn’t a bulk plant anywhere in the state that meets the new regulations.”
That said, the closing is no less painful.  Both spoke of the friends they’ve made, and the memories they will cherish.
“We raised our kids and our grandkids in here,” said Cindy from their office in Greybull. “It’s been nice, having the flexibility to do that.”
Added Kip, “I grew up in the business, and with the exception of the 10 years I spent at MI, I’ve always been around it.  It’s been a big part of my life.”