A family of fourth generation Aggies have been serving the Bryan-College Station area with petroleum products for nearly 100 years.
Brenco Marketing, a Broach family business, began in 1924 when J.S. Broach became the first Sinclair Oil and Refining Company bulk agent in the Brazos Valley. After selling the distributorship, J.S. Broach entered the petroleum business in 1960 and started the Broach Oil Company, which was renamed Brenco Marketing in the 1980s.
In 1974, J.S. Broach’s son, Kelly Broach, Class of 1957, assumed control of the business and grew it into one of the largest wholesale distributors in Texas. Kelly Broach’s wife, Nancy McDonald Broach, began working for the company in the 1970s and currently serves as the company’s senior vice president.
Kelly Broach’s son, Don Broach, Class of 1977, has held the title of president and CEO of Brenco Marketing since 1989. Don Broach said Brenco Marketing Company has sold petroleum products to Texas A&M for years, placing the university in the top 20 percent of their business.
“[We sell] about a million gallons a year and the majority of that is diesel fuel,” Don Broach said. “The buses are the [biggest consumers]. They’re the ones that’s going to be 800,000 to 900,000 gallons [of diesel fuel a year].”
Russell Bennett, transportation manager of Brenco Marketing, said the smaller amounts of fuel supplied to A&M are used to take care of the campus terrain.
“We supply utilities and landscape maintenance such as lawn mowers, weed eaters and the Bobcat tractors they use when they go all around campus taking care of the scenery,” Bennett said.
Don Broach’s brother, Kenny Broach, Class of 1975, currently serves as the executive vice president of the company, and Don Broach’s daughter, Allison Polka, Class of 2004, works as the account executive for the company and said she hopes to step into her father’s position.
Brenco Marketing has helped maintain an A&M tradition, serving as the fuel supplier for the Aggie Bonfire until it’s devastating collapse in 1999, and continues to provide fuel for the current off-campus student bonfire organizers.
“We have been doing that for years until the Bonfire fell, and once it fell and they moved it off campus, we still will give them fuel to help build it,” Don Broach said. “We don’t give them the fuel that they put on it to burn it, but we give them the fuel to run their chainsaws and trucks and stuff like that, so we will do that each year.”
Don Broach said the students who build Bonfire often bring gifts to him as a show of gratitude for Brenco Marketing’s support.
“They would always bring me a picture each year [of the Bonfire] on campus,” Don Broach said. “Once they moved it off, they will give me a center pole of wood that they will use to build a bonfire with, so they will brand it and bring it to me.”
Polka said working in the family business has strengthened her relationship with her father and their bond as business partners.
“Working with my family has such a deeper purpose and meaning than working with anyone else,” Polka said. “It’s unique to have the relationship that we do, to where we can have a business relationship and not ever have an issue and have a father and daughter relationship and never have an issue. It’s just really cool.”