AN APP PROPANE serviceman makes a delivery to a local customer. APP is looking to open a new facility in Kelso this summer to serve all of Clark County and SW Washington.
Tacoma-based APP Propane, one of the state’s largest propane and petroleum distributorships, is looking to expand and improve their service to Southwest Washington, with a new facility proposed in Kelso.
With all regional deliveries coming from upstate, Don Kollmansberger, who oversees the area for APP Propane, says the new facility will be ideal for customers in North Clark County and Cowlitz County as well.
“It will be a full-sized operation with repair, storage, and delivery facilities,” Kollmansberger said. “We’re just waiting for the approval of our neighbors in Kelso, which should come in the next 90 days, but we expect to be online and running by this summer.”
The price of wholesale propane took a significant drop in Washington State over the last month from $1.49 per gallon at the beginning of January to $1.30 per gallon this past week.
With consumers everywhere wondering when the price of both gasoline and heating oil will again go up, finding a cheaper alternative is becoming more of an option for most homeowners, something Kollmansberger says can make the switch to propane very attractive.
“Propane is a very versatile fuel,” Kollmansberger said. “Unlike heating oil, which is used only for furnaces and boilers, propane is like natural gas in that it can power just about everything in the home.”
Like heating oil, propane is refined from crude oil during a process called fluid catalytic cracking, by which the crude is boiled to convert its hydrocarbons into products like gasoline, asphalt, lubricating oil, butane and propane.
Kollmansberger is quick to be cautious regarding pricing for propane and other fuels APP sells, noting several different factors affect how it fluctuates from month to month.
“One of the major ones is simply the supply/demand curve,” Kollmansberger said. “Usually the price goes down in the summer and up in the winter as the demand for propane for heating and other uses increases. Much of that fluctuation can also be tied into where we’re getting our supply from whether it’s locally, from Canada, or wherever and everything is also tied into the price of gasoline.”
What makes APP different than other fuel distributors, Kollmansberger said, is both their consistency and their transparency with their customers. When the company opened in 1982, they were limited to one truck and a skeleton crew. Now, APP earns $600 million in annual sales and employs over 200 people.
“We’re one of the fastest growing companies in the nation, but we’re still based entirely in Washington State,” Kollmansberger said. “We also let customers know what our prices are before they buy. If you go to a gas station or other vendors, they don’t always tell you how much propane costs over gas or diesel. We believe our customers have a right to know what they’re paying.”
If the proposed Kelso site is approved, Kollmansberger said APP may look to further expand into Southwest Washington next year with a facility in Vancouver.
For more information about APP Propane, go to their website, www.apppropane.com, or call (253) 627-6179, or toll-free (800) 929-5243.
