Third-generation oil dealer under new ownership

Mohegan Oil started in NL after WWII; now owned by Spicer Plus

Groton — After three generations in the family, Rich Fabricant has sold the Mohegan Oil fuel dealership. But the new owner is aiming for a seamless transition.

Spicer Plus, a regional supplier of propane gas and heating oil, took over operations of Mohegan Oil on May 19. Mohegan Oil has retained the same seven employees and Fabricant, 67, is still there but will retire soon.

“We’re trying to coordinate everything so it’s as smooth as possible for the customers,” Fabricant said Friday. He wrote in a May letter to customers that “advancing age and declining health dictate that I find a company that would carry on the tradition of ‘where service is a fact ... not a slogan’ that has always been the driving force behind this great little company.”

Fabricant’s wife’s grandfather founded Mohegan Oil, which began on Bank Street in New London after World War II. It then moved to Mystic around 1960, and the offices are now based in Groton.

Fabricant, a New London native, worked in the furniture industry in New York City but moved back to southeastern Connecticut in 1984 to help his father-in-law run Mohegan Oil.

Like Mohegan Oil, Spicer Plus is a family business in the third generation of ownership — and Spicer Plus also employs people in the fourth generation.

Spicer Plus dates to 1915, when brothers George and Harry Elion began delivering ice and firewood locally. They added coal in the 1920s, then fuel oil and then propane gas.

The current president is Larry Chesler, who is the grandson of George Elion and has been with

Spicer since 1979.

“It’s an opportunity, and we’re very excited about it,” Chesler said of the purchase of Mohegan Oil. “We think they have an excellent reputation, and they can add some talent to our organization, in some aspects to us that we find attractive, and we already do much of the same stuff.”

This acquisition follows Spicer Plus’ 2007 merger with Advanced Gas. Fabricant feels it has become increasingly difficult for small dealers to remain and that consolidation has been the trend in the industry.

Chesler and Fabricant noted that while their companies have been competitors, the relationship between the two goes back decades.

Mohegan Oil founder Aron Agrin was friends with the Elions, and the three were partners in the wholesale tank farm company United Fuel.

Fabricant noted in his letter, “There was even a marriage between an Elion and an Agrin, so we’re still keeping the business within the family!”