Spar Gas

(Editor’s note) City of Sparta and The Expositor are partnering in a venture to feature city businesses. Each week, Mayor Jerry Lowery and City Administrator Tonya Tindle are providing a video production that highlights a specific business. In turn, The Expositor will publish a story about that business. “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.” (Harry S. Truman, former president of the United States)

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Maryann Catron started a business in 1968 with just $65 and a dream. Today, that business, Spar-Gas, operates six locations across the state and houses the largest in-stock supply of propane gas in Tennessee.

View video here.

“This was my momma’s baby,” Sabrina Tolbert, who, along with her brother Steven Catron, now runs Spar-Gas, said. “She was a woman working in a man’s world and that didn’t intimidate her one bit.”

Maryann Catron, who began the business along with her husband, Lyle, and their friend, Oval Hitchcock, opened Spar-Gas in a small building, on North Spring Street, in Sparta. Six years later, in 1974, the business moved into what was known as ‘the old Carnation Milk Plant,’ on Mayberry Street, where 50 years later it still resides.

Over the years, the business has changed, grown, and expanded. But the one thing that hasn’t changed is the focus on customer service. With 30 employees operating out of six locations, Spar-Gas still has a hometown, family atmosphere. Whether installing or filling a propane tank, setting up a new water heater or fireplace, installing a patio grill, or filling a cylinder, each employee treats every customer like they are part of the family.

“My mother believed in doing an hour’s work for an hour’s pay. She was a hard worker and started this business because she believed in doing whatever was needed to get a job done,” Tolbert said. “She instilled that work ethic into us, and we continue this business today with that in mind.”

Spar-Gas is a full-service company with a large supply of everything needed to fully operate a home via propane gas. From fireplaces to water heaters to dryers to kitchen stoves, they have – and will install – everything a family would need. In addition, they have a large variety of wall heaters, grills, and propane storage tanks for homes and businesses, but, despite all of that, it is the fact they will never run out of gas that is what has made them the region’s top seller of propane products.

“My mother would always say, ‘I never want to run out of gas. Our customers depend on us’,” Tolbert recalled. “The result is that we have the largest storage supply in the state. If you need propane, we can get it to you. We are not going to run out of gas, which means that our customers never have to run out of gas, which means that their homes and businesses can always be both functional and comfortable.”

Spar-Gas, which Maryann started with just $65, has grown to currently include six locations: the home office in Sparta, McMinnville, Carthage, Crossville, Livingston, and Shelbyville. But, according to Tolbert, they aren’t done yet.

“We service customers all across the state, but we would like to someday open a seventh location,” she said, explaining while their technicians travel the state daily, having a showroom and service center close to customers makes customer service that much better. “We would like to open a center in East Tennessee in the future.”

Regardless of whether Spar-Gas expands to seven stores or 17 stores, the one thing that will never change is the focus.

“We are family-owned and operated. We hope to pass this down to our own children just like our parents did for us,” Tolbert explained. “And the biggest part of making sure that happens is making sure that customer service is at the forefront of our focus every day, not just meeting our customers’ needs but making sure that they know that their needs are important to us, helping them in a timely manner, and making sure that we have earned every dollar they spend with us.”

After all, that’s just how Maryann planned it.