PORTLAND, Maine — Robert Moore, president and chief executive officer of statewide fuel dealer Dead River Co., announced he plans to retire next summer after eight years leading the company with locations throughout northern New England.
The company announced Moore’s retirement Wednesday.
“It is one of the great honors of my life to lead this company,” Moore, a former adviser to Gov. John “Jock” McKernan and partner at Portland law firm Pierce Atwood, said in a news release.
The company plans to promote Bar Harbor native Deanna Sherman, the company’s vice president of energy, to take on the role of president starting in January. She will transition into the president and CEO role in July 2016, when Moore steps down.
Sherman started with the company in 1986. She leads operations, sales and marketing for the South Portland-based company.
The company in 2011 sold its convenience store business to Circle K, to focus on home heating fuels and heating systems, and has over the years acquired a number of smaller fuel dealers throughout the state.
It acquired Webber Energy Fuels in 2012, which added about 225 employees to the company, bringing its total employment to about 625. The company has about 1,000 employees today, according to its website, and it is registered with the state to do business under the names of about 90 other local fuel dealers.
Those “assumed” business names don’t necessarily indicate an acquisition, but they could indicate a new division or trade name under which the parent company does business. And companies can keep such names registered as assumed names despite not operating under such names.
Lisa Morissette, the company’s director of marketing, said the company operates only under the name Dead River Co.
Dead River also has some back office staff who handle accounting, information services and human resources at 80 Exchange St. in Bangor.
The company was founded in 1909 in the forest products industry and claims the title of the largest retailer of home heating products in northern New England, selling propane, heating oil, kerosene, diesel fuel and gasoline.