Dennison Lubricants

Dennison Lubricants is one of the largest distributors and manufacturers of premium automotive, commercial, environmentally friendly, food grade and industrial lubricants throughout the greater New England area. Dennison Lubricants is the only distributor in New England to cover the entire market from Boston to Presque Isle Maine over to Burlington Vermont down The Hudson River to New York City and back thru Connecticut and Rhode Island. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, Dennison Lubricants has achieved success by following one simple rule: making the customer our number one priority. Dennison Lubricants is unique in its coverage of the New England Market and in its distribution and manufacturing capabilities.

Founder and President Timothy Dennison has nurtured this small family business—one that started with a single truck driver and his wife Karen as bookkeeper—into a thriving and profitable forty million dollar company, with over 60 employees, two thousand customers and facilities in Lakeville, and Worcester Massachusetts, as well as Gardiner Maine. Dennison Lubricants sells more than five million gallons of lubricants annually to the automotive, commercial and industrial segments, with an annual growth that has averaged twenty-two percent for the last five years. The Company has been honored by the last two years as one of the fastest growing companies in the country and in the top one-hundred fastest growing companies in New England.

The company manufactures and distributes lubricants, from motor oil to specialized environmentally friendly lubricants for the automotive, aviation, industrial and marine industries. The strategic partner is BP/Castrol the world leader in premium lubricant products. Citgo has also been an important part of their continued success for over 15 years. Recently the company signed contracts to distribute Petro-Canada and Irving products throughout its marketing area. As a manufacturer, the company owns and markets the OILZUM, W.A. Wood, and PENNWOOD Brands, which are three of the oldest and most respected brands in New England. The company is a manufacturing member of ILMA (Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association). In addition to lubricants, the company distributes automotive parts including filters, wiper blades and automotive chemicals including anti-freeze. Thru an affiliated company “Frank Brooke Associates” Dennison markets and services rotary lifts and Graco Lubrication equipment who are the market leader in their respective field.


Our History: Building the Foundation
Timothy Dennison’s introduction and exposure to the motor oil industry came at an early age. As a teenager in the late 1970’s, he started packaging and distributing motor oil for his stepfather, Peter Yekhtikian, who owned Admiral Petroleum in Kingston, Massachusetts. Soon after Yekhtikian’s death in 1978, Dennison went on to work as a salesman for Lubrx, a lubricants blender, where he expanded their coverage area and established new product lines. From 1982-1987 he worked for Frost Distributors, where he supervised all operations and was the leading sales person. In this roll he was instrumental in establishing a thriving Valvoline distributorship throughout Eastern Massachusetts and Rohde Island. Always an entrepreneur at heart, Dennison decided it was time to branch out on his own and opened Dennison Lubricants in October of 1987 on Main Street in Hanson, Massachusetts.

Despite the difficult business climate in New England in the late eighties and early nineties, coupled with the fact that the lubricants industry was consolidating in general, Dennison Lubricants continued to grow every year. Dennison was able to sustain and grow the business by remaining focused on the customer and by making a decision to invest in other complementary companies, as opposed to being bought out by competition. In 1994, with several hundred customers, Dennison went on to develop his very own lucrative private label brands. By the mid nineties, the success of this launch helped push the company forward. Over the course of just ten years, the company enjoyed double digit sales growth almost every year.

“We bucked a lot of trends in the economy and the industry by insisting the customer was always the number one priority, by hiring a committed and tenacious sales team, and by making strategic partnerships and acquisitions where we needed to expand,” says Dennison. “But at the same time, we never wanted to lose the intimate, family business feel we started out with, and that has absolutely contributed to our success, and allowed us to maintain the values that the company was founded on: hard work, humility and honesty.”

Dennison’s success with customer retention did not go unnoticed in the industry. In the mid nineties, the leading lubricant and petroleum companies like BP/Castrol and Citgo offered their product lines to the local distributor.

Dennison’s first acquisition, which would lay the foundation for future acquisitions, was DB Enterprise in 1999. Dennison purchased the company primarily for its lubricants business. The same year, Dennison Lubricants moved its headquarters from Kingston to Lakeville, Massachusetts, setting up shop in a larger facility. In 2001, Dennison purchased Massachusetts-based Equilube, a motor oil distributor, from Fred Frazee, who joined Dennison Lubricants as a sales manager for the automotive segment.

Acquiring a Rich Heritage
In 2003, Dennison purchased W.A Wood and was able to enter into the industrial sector.
As a manufacturer, the company, which was founded in 1868 in Boston and first sold whale oil, was known for its high quality metal working lubricants and other industrial lubricants. W.A Wood also blended and marketed Pennwood automotive lubricants as well as being a distributor of Castrol products.

In 2005, Dennison Lubricants made its fourth acquisition, when it purchased automotive lubrication equipment and lift maker Frank Brooke Associates. The same year, Dennison Lubricants also expanded into Maine, and hired a dedicated sales team to serve Northern New England.

In 2006, Dennison Lubricants made its fifth and largest acquisition when it purchased BP/Castrols Worcester, Massachusetts facility and took over Bp/Castrols Heavy Duty business in New England. In addition they acquired the Oilzum motor oil brand from Castrol. Oilzum, which was once owned by The Famous White and Bagley Company. It was introduced in 1905 and became extremely popular with race car drivers. Perhaps even more memorable was its famous branding and ad slogan “If motors could speak, we wouldn’t need to advertise.”