Tom Carey, owner of Jamie Oil, poses with daughter Carolyn Carey, director of sales and marketing.

Jamie Oil started out as a home heating oil company in 1989, but over the past three decades, it has “morphed into a full-fledged home services company,” says Tom Carey, the president and owner of Jamie Oil since 1997.

“We established a reputation of providing great service for oil and heat, and our customers began asking for more services. We wanted to be responsive to their needs,” Carey explains. “Fifteen years ago, customers wanted air conditioning, for example, so we got into that. Then they would ask for propane or if we knew a good plumber, so we got into both propane and plumbing.”

In 2022, Jamie Oil purchased Paul Flaherty Plumbing, which has allowed Jamie to add gas heat and propane to its list of services. “A lot of customers, especially in Hopkinton, have propane generators, fireplaces or swimming pool heaters, so it was natural to expand into these businesses,” Carey says. “Plus, we see the environmental writing on the wall, and now we can work on heat pumps, which are more efficient than oil.”

Carey recognizes that “times are changing” when it comes to how home and business owners choose to fuel their properties. “We’ve been named MetroWest’s best oil company for 25 years in a row, and that’s great, but we had a decision to make. If we just stayed in oil, we should’ve been thinking about selling the business in a few years, but we made the decision to carry on and evolve,” Carey says.

“Evolving, transitioning — you have to,” he continues. “The smart blacksmiths started selling gasoline and repairing automobiles. Oil is going to be here for another 20 years, but if we really want to carry on for another generation, we have to diversify. Things evolve, and if you don’t stay with it, you fall behind.”

Although the company has seen considerable expansion since its beginnings, Carey stresses that Jamie Oil still operates like a local business. “We’re big enough that we can offer all these services, but we’re small enough that we offer the personal touch. On one hand, we’ve got 25 oil trucks. On the other hand, we return every phone call,” states Carolyn Carey, director of sales and marketing.

As we enter the cooler months, Carey says most homeowners would benefit from a preventative maintenance visit from Jamie’s technicians. “If you have your heating system tuned up in October or November, we can catch a problem early. You don’t want to lose heat on Thanksgiving weekend,” he cautions.

Carey, who lives in Hopkinton, says he’s most proud of the fact that his team has “built a good company with a good reputation; people really rely on us, from greenhouses to funeral homes to day cares. If they lose their heat on a cold day, we can get there in an hour or two and get their heat running,” he says. “Doing it right and having high levels of customer satisfaction, that makes us feel good.”

To learn more about Jamie Oil’s services, call 508-231-1400 or visit jamieoil.com.

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