Class 2002
The Sandri Family
The history of the Sandri Companies is an old-fashioned American success story. It is of two men who, over the course of nearly 70 years, with hard work, intelligence, and savvy made something out of nothing, and benefited their community in the process.
A.R. Sandri moved to Greenfield in 1929 and following an internship, worked as chief clerk for the Pan -Am Oil Company. He had come from the granite-quarrying town of Barre, Vermont, after the death of his father, as his mother urged him to find another, less hazardous line of work. At Pan-Am, A.R.’s supervisor could not remember or pronounce his given name of Achilio Remo, so he called him Bill. Pan-Am saw potential in the young Sandri and in 1930 offered him a lease on a gasoline station on Main Street in Greenfield.
From that single gas station came an entrepreneurial empire. By 1962, A.R. Sandri was a successful Cities Service distributor in Franklin County with 26 service stations, a strong farm and commercial account base, and a fuel oil business of about 5 million gallons yearly. A.R. was searching for more ways to expand and grow his business and in 1964 Sun Oil Company offered him just that. Conversion was completed by the next summer and by 1969, A.R. Sandri, Inc. had grown to serve two counties in Massachusetts and the lower portions of Vermont and New Hampshire.
Also in 1969, A.R.’s son William A. Sandri came to work for the business full-time, following a successful academic career at Deerfield Academy and the Wharton School of Business.  W.A. began working in the business when he was very young, doing various backbreaking jobs during his summers off from school. After managing a restaurant and tending bar in Stowe, Vermont, W.A. came back to Greenfield and began the second half of this very successful family history.
By 1973, W.A. took over as President of A.R. Sandri, Inc. and related corporations and began a series of steps that took the business to the next level. The most impressive of these moves was the buy-out of all Sunoco gas stations in Vermont and Southern New Hampshire in 1976. That move single-handedly put the Sandri corporations in the forefront of fuels distribution in New England, and made Sandri the largest Sunoco distributor in the country.
In the late 1980s, the Sandri Companies started expanding from the original business, with the acquisition of the Crumpin-Fox Club and adjoining restaurant. Other Fox golf courses followed, as well as investments in real estate, travel agencies, and a florist shop. The Sandri credit card was marketed to the customers of these businesses, offering discounts at Sandri companies and further tying together the entrepreneurial empire.
W.A also directs his energy toward charitable causes, including serving as a national director of Big Brothers/Big Sisters on and off for over 15 years. The Sandri Companies continue their "Tot Adopt" program, providing Christmas gifts to children of needy families throughout the region.
We are proud to induct the Sandri family into the Western Massachusetts Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame.