Profile in Business: Sean Cota: Doing it the Old Yankee Way

Vermont Business Magazine, Feb 01, 2003 by Marcel, Joyce

The movie "It's a Wonderful Life" takes place in the small and snowy town of Bedford Falls. There, Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey reluctantly takes over his family's savings and loan business, marries, has a family and devotes himself to improving his community, all the while fighting the evil banker Mr. Potter.

Change Bedford to Bellows, the savings and loan to a fuel oil business, add a predilection for bow ties, and you've got Sean O Cota.

But since life doesn't exactly follow art, change the star, too. Cota, 39, tall, dark-haired, rangy and handsome, looks more like Gregory Peck than Jimmy Stewart.

Cota is the third generation of his family to run Cota & Cota, Inc of Bellows Falls, which sells heating oil, propane, kerosene, gasoline, diesel, oil and gas boilers, furnaces and water heaters, plumbing and HVAC equipment, low temperature alarms and radiant under-floor heating systems. It also services heating equipment and commercial vehicles.

Heating oil and kerosene sales in Vermont arc a $150 million business, according to the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association (VFDA). Propane sales run between $75 million and $100 million. About 300 million gallons of gasoline are sold each year, representing between $400 million and $500 million in sales. There are about 100 companies selling fuel oil today, down from 250 in the 1970s.

Cota & Cota is a privately held company; the stock is owned jointly by Cota, who is president, and his younger brother and vice president, Casey K Cota. Their uncle, Chris A Cota, is vice president and also secretary. Although Cota says "absolutely not" when it comes to revealing company financial information, he said that Cota & Cota is in the top 10 of family-owned Vermont fuel dealers, and definitely qualifies to be one of Vermont Business Magazine's Top 100 companies.

Since its founding in 1941, the company has continually expanded, building plants, garages and offices and buying other companies. It bought the southern division of Cray Oil Co in Ludlow and North Walpole, NH, in 1982, Midway Oil in Springfield and Connelly Coal & Water Co in North Walpole in 1990, Charlestown Fuel Service of Charlestown, NH, in 1993, and Gay's Fuel Service of Bellows Falls in 1996. That purchase gave Cota & Cota entry into the propane business.

Since Cota and his brother bought the business from their father, Hugh Prescott Cota in 1995, the company has grown by about a third.

"I don't count customers on a daily or yearly basis," Cota said. "I just know if we're growing or declining. And we're growing. Here's our marketing secret: We answer the phone when it rings, with people, and we do what we say we're going to do, for what we say we're going to do it for, when we say we're going to do it. And that's it."

With a strong reputation for customer service, Cota & Cota now has well over 6,000 customers, employs about 60 people, covers Windham County and southern Windsor County in Vermont plus communities in bordering New Hampshire, and operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. On cold days Cota is on call 24 hours a day and his wife makes him sleep on the couch.

"It's probably a good idea," Cota said in January. "Over the weekend I got 'paged on 45 calls."

Besides his bow ties, Cota is known for his wry sense of humor, drinking diet Mountain Dew by the case on long drives to Washington to lobby on behalf of his industry, the number of federal, state and local boards and committees he volunteers for, his willingness to speak his mind, his common sense approach to political issues, his far-sighted dedication to the community of Bellows Falls, and his habit of drinking two martinis before heading out on a five mile run because, "At that point I no longer care about the problems of work or the pain of running."

Cota is also widely respected for making sure that in winter, even his poorer or less credit-worthy customers have heat.

To accomplish all this, Cota adheres to a family code of values called "The Old Yankee Way." He was raised to understand risk, responsibility, and the importance of respecting other people, their property and their opinions:

"You are able to show courtesy and concern, compassion and caring," says the code, which can be found on the company's website (cotaoil.com). "It means volunteering within your community... treating our customers as we would want to be treated - with honesty and good value."

Although he often grumbles about it, Cota enjoys life in a small community.

"The best part of living in a small town is that everyone knows what you do," he said. "If I'm buying ice cream, my wife's probably going to hear that I'm buying ice cream. As long as I should be buying ice cream, that's fine. It also requires you to pay attention to your neighbors and have some decency. If every business ran with the expectation that everyone knew what they were doing, they might act differently."

Cota grew up in the business, working the dirtiest jobs and learning how to get along with all kinds of people.

"We were the septic pumping business at that point, and I did the tanks," Cota said. "One time a tank's top started sinking in the septic tank. My father was on the job that day, and he sent me in to get it. It's a great tale. Nobody believes it. But it teaches you several things. One is that all work has dignity; another is that I, as an owner of a business, should be willing to do anything anyone else in the company should be asked to do."