Lykins Energy Solutions, headquartered in Milford, OH ( a Cincinnati suburb), has experienced impressive growth through the expansion of its service offerings and acquisition. Lykins is a premier supplier of traditional fuels and environmentally friendly alternative fuels for business and government fleets, municipalities, homes and farms.
Founded in 1948 by Guy Lykins, Sr., and now in the third generation of management, Lykins employs over 200 people. The company represents five major brands: BP, Marathon, ExxonMobil, Shell and Clark, supplying more than 160 independent dealers.
Situation: Through organic and acquisition growth, Lykins grew to 25 locations. Unfortunately, they also experienced a proliferation of telecom services and invoices. For instance, they had 34 different invoices for analog lines and remote call forwarding. Lykins uses remote call forwarding to establish local points of presence in various cities that they service but don’t necessarily have an office. Billing had also ballooned to unprecedented levels.
Faced with this situation—bloated and disparate telecom contracts, Lykins reached out to ATC to conduct a comprehensive telecom audit, including services for local, long distance and data.
The Goal: Consolidate all invoices and leverage economies of scale to get the best pricing available for each service.
“We needed to get a handle on everything. When we reviewed the detail within ATC’s proposal it was clear their diligent, attentive approach would yield the best return,” said Bob Manning, Lykins’ executive vice president and CFO.
Indeed it did. ATC uncovered over-billing problems totaling $15,000, which occurred with their long distance services over the three previous years. Once ATC completed the audit and negotiated new pricing for each service in Lykins portfolio, new co-terminus contracts were signed.
The Result: A strategic solution delivering a 21 percent reduction in monthly billing. ATC also secured a $7,500 credit toward the overbill charges though the carrier had little to no contractual obligation to refund any amount. All the services represented in the 34 invoices referenced previously are now covered with two invoices, making management and bookkeeping much simpler.
Since, ATC’s ongoing support has been a constant throughout the relationship. “Nick (Enger) is a trusted advisor. At times we’ve been short on IT resources. Nick has been there all along and guided us through transition,” says Manning.
What’s Next: A global telecom strategy to include the deployment of a VoIP phone system. Currently, ATC is working with Lykins to pilot a solution in a couple locations prior to a potential full-scale rollout.
Over the years, Lykins Companies has diversified into several specialized aspects of the petroleum industry, including diesel exhaust fluid, petroleum transportation, petroleum wholesaling in 15 states, and servicing to more than 25,000 residences with home heating oil and propane.
- Lykins has approximately $1 billion in sales.
- Lykins is one of the 100 largest privately held companies in Ohio.
- Lykins is one of the oldest and largest Petroleum Marketing Companies in the region and the nation.
