In 1926, Margaret Mitchell, a reporter for the Sunday Magazine of the Atlanta Journal, had to leave due to an ankle injury and subsequent debilitating arthritis. Her husband suggested that she write a book to keep busy. Three years later, the manuscript of Gone with the Wind was ready to be edited and massaged for another seven years. It was not until Mitchell was satisfied that Macmillan Press was ready to start printing.

Against this background, I heard Joe Armentano, CEO of Paraco Gas, based in Ryebrook, explain that it took him several years to write and polish his new book A Helluva Ride: How a Father and son family business overcomes the crisis and realizes the American dream. "

This book tells how his father Pat started in their garage in Mount Vernon and founded a family business specializing in welding supplies. Through a series of acquisitions and expansions, the business has grown into what Paraco is today.

The company has more than 425 employees, 28 branches and annual revenue of 150 million US dollars. Over the years, it has acquired 53 companies and served more than 110,000 residential and commercial customers.

This book also focuses on father-son and other family relationships at the personal and business levels.

"Before he started his business, I was there when I was a kid, so I saw everything that spanned generations, because we are now in the third generation with my daughter Christina," Amentano told Business Magazine .

He explained that he had arranged for his father to be interviewed in a series of recordings to preserve family and business history and record personal thoughts and suggestions. When his father died in 2010, at the age of 80, Armentano realized it was time to organize these materials and convert them into written form.

"I said I really didn't have time to finish this, so I asked me to hire a ghostwriter," Armentano said. "About eight years ago, I gave her about 100 hours of tapes. I asked her to come down and interview 18 people I thought were important."

Armentano said that he was not satisfied with the author's work, but her efforts did organize the raw materials.

"It's not me, it's not my voice, it doesn't capture emotions. In the past seven years, I edited this manuscript about 50 to 100 times," Armentano said. "I think none of her words survived. I didn't win the Pulitzer Prize for it, but I became an excellent writer."

In 1968, Armentano's father founded Patsems Inc, a welding supply company. Its products include welding rods, face shields and helmets.

Armentano recalled that in order to expand the welding supply business, his father decided to add industrial gases such as oxygen and acetylene. Propane was added to the mixture because it was used as a heat source on construction sites and to power forklifts; it became a niche market, growing to approximately 25% of the business.

"Just around 1979, he said,'Joe, find me a propane company,'" Armentano said. "I don’t know anything about propane. I don’t know people use it for heating or cooking. I thought everyone used it for grilling. We didn’t know anything about the industry at that time, we didn’t know anything about it, I My father’s thought was, “Well, I’ll save some money on the product and then go into another business.””

In 1979, Patsems acquired Paraco Fuel Corp., a distributor of Peekskill fuel oil and propane. The operation adopted the name Paraco and expanded to Long Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and other areas in the Hudson Valley. It soon expanded further to Rhode Island, Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, Colorado, Missouri and Massachusetts.

Joe Armentano was born in Mount Vernon and is the eldest of four sons. He studied at Fordham University and graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts in History. He received an MBA from Iona College in 1988.

Amentano said that a successful family business needs to start with passionate family members.

"I have seen many family businesses. Some family members shouldn't have entered the business because they don't have that kind of enthusiasm," he said. "Secondly, there needs to be a commitment to continuing education. The third is willingness to take risks.

"You must be able and willing to take risks in the business, especially in the family business, because all your wealth is usually closely related to the family business. If you want to expand and grow, you need to take risks," he added. "Our risk is actually to acquire companies through acquisitions, going out and assuming we can make them pay and work for themselves."

Armentano said that Paraco has gone through every imaginable business cycle, but what is happening now is unusual and affects all forms of energy.

"This will be a very hot year for energy prices," Armentano said. "I have never seen propane prices rise so fast. We are talking about propane prices rising by more than 200% in four or five months."

Armentano expressed belief that energy prices will remain high throughout the winter.

"I do think you might see supply shortages in certain energy markets," he said. "For us, we have a very diverse supply strategy to ensure that we provide supply for customers entering this winter.

"We are 100% confident that we will have enough supply, but some of our competitors may appear, and some people in some other energy sectors may have supply shortages," Armentano said. "The other issue is not only a supply issue, but also to ensure that you have enough manpower to deliver. We are now reading information about labor shortages, especially drivers and truck drivers. We are working very hard to stay ahead."

The paperback edition of Armentano's book is scheduled to be released on Amazon on December 8. Armentano provides paperback and hardback editions through his website joearmentano.com.

The autograph session is scheduled to be held on December 8th at the conference facility of the Paraco office building at 800 Westchester Avenue in Rye Brook.

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