Fuel Oil News’ parent company, Ashley and Dumville, was established in Stretford, Manchester, in 1880 as a coal and coke merchant.

By 1939 it had been developed by Albert Smith into a leading wholesaler for the North West of England, supplying a large part of what was then Europe’s largest industrial estate, Trafford Park in Manchester. In the 1950s the company diversified into marketing fuel oil.

James Smith, Albert Smith’s grandson, formed Knutsford Domestic Fuel Oil Company in 1975. As an authorised distributor for Phillips Petroleum, the company supplied rural domestic and small business customers.

Alongside this James Smith also ran a business selling fuels for industry and power generation sourced from the Eastham refinery.

Early in his business career, he had been a journalist and a newspaper proprietor, and in 1977 he started a newsletter for local distributors: this became Fuel Oil News.

Knutsford Domestic Oil Company was sold to the North West Farmers Group in 1995, but the company continued to market Pureflame industrial fuels until 2002. James Smith’s son Nick started Oil Recruitment in 1998.