Imperialle Fuels

Imperial Fuels started out in 1934 as a sole proprietorship owned by Joe McManus and as it grew it became obvious it was time to incorporate, however Imperial Fuels could not be used so Joe used Imperialle Fuels for the corporate name instead. Imperialle Fuels started out small in the retail coal business but soon had 30 trucks operating out of the London coal yard. In 1936 Joe decided to expand into the wholesale coal business and undertook to create a new coal dock in Port Stanley. Soon large ships were unloading cargoes of coal at Port Stanley. Imperialle Fuels then used the London & Port Stanley Railway to haul train loads of coal to its commercial and industrial customers. It was not long before Imperialle had the largest wholesale coal business in Western Ontario. At its peak close to 500,000 tons of coal passed through the Imperialle Fuel docks each year.