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 Merrill Gas has new ownership, but customers should see no changes according to District Manager Matt Henry.
Merrill Gas was sold to Heritage Operating LP (part of Energy Transfer Partners)on October 1st , 2011. Energy Transfer Partners then sold the propane division, Heritage Propane, to AmeriGas as a way to raise money to buy another company, Southern Union Co. The AmeriGas - Heritage Propane merger was completed on January 12th of this year.
According to Bloomberg news, AmeriGas Partners LP paid $1.5 billion in cash and about $1.3 billion in AmeriGas common stock, and assumed $71 million of debt from Energy Transfer Partners. The deal gives AmeriGas a million more customers in 41 states.
What can local customers expect? “We will continue to operate out of Brattleboro office and do business as Merrill Gas and all of our employees are still the same, so our customers will not see any changes,” said Henry.
Merrill Gas was locally owned and operated in Brattleboro since 1946. You can find them at www.merrillgas.com
AmeriGas is based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. You can find them at www.amerigas.com
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conglomerized. The promise is always that it'll stay the
same, and usually for awhile it is, or appears to be.
Lately, a bunch of us on this site have been discussing the
transformation of the former family-owned local newspaper
after it was bought up & the buy-up was bought up &c.
And remember how seamless it was going to be when
Verizon got snapped up by Fairpointe?
Sometimes it's not so bad, but even the swallowing of
Vermont National Bank by Chittenden by People's had its
fallout: VNB was headquartered right in Brattleboro. When
Chittenden took over a lot of employees lost their jobs,
notably at the operations center on Putney Rd. Another
result of the buyout was that it became harder for local
nonprofits to get financial support from the bank, once it
wasn't local.
Usually the most destructive part of these acquisitions is
that employees start to lose status. Pay cuts, job re-
jiggering &c. We saw that when the Reformer was sold.
And we'll see it again. Then what happens is customer
service slips. Merrill is a prime example of a company
where customer service is paramount.