Morris McFall was born in 1935 and grew up on a farm in Ohaupo working for his father and then in 1956 he completed compulsory military training in the RNZAF Maritime Unit at Hobsonville.

Bought first family 60 acre farm in Paterangi and 4 years later this was added to with 40 acres of undeveloped peat. By 1965 a highly productive dairy farm had been developed.

The farm in Paterangi was sold and a sheep farm was purchased in Arohena, 50 km east of Te Awamutu and 1000 feet above sea level. Morris converted this farm to a 320 cow dairy unit but it remained a mixed farm. This was the first dairy farm conversion in the Arohena district. The whole region is now recognised as preferred dairying area.

Morris McFall was awarded a Nuffield Agricultural  Scholarship to study large scale dairying in the UK & Europe.

Local opportunities available saw McFall Enterprises grow to include road construction and civil works. Developing a number of quarries to provide services for local land development saw the winning some major NRB & TNZ roading contracts and the general maintenance contract for the Waipa District Council along with a range of other Civil Engineering Contracts. The services included roading and site works, earthmoving, underground services, quarrying, road transport and specialized services such as drinkable water delivery, kerb and channel and concrete services plus state highway shoulder drainage.

Work in Petroleum Industry Begins

Progressively taking over the home heat service from BP and subsequently Shell Oil for the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, King Country, and Auckland.

BP transferred the farm delivery service to McFall’s for the Auckland Province, Bay of Plenty, and King Country

Ownership of service stations and truck stop facilities in Whitianga, Paeroa and Te Awamutu

Fuel Storage Limited

This company was set up to provide storage. Manufacturing tanks to meet the demands of industry sectors from rural to commercial to forestry, as well as providing trailer tanks which are sold or for onsite storage of fuel.

McFall in the Fuel Business

Has a fuel distribution contract with BP and owns a fleet of tankers that service the central North Island including Auckland and as far south as Whanganui. Operating 7 days out of the terminal at Wiri, Mount Maunganui, and New Plymouth. 

BP took a minor equity interest in the business as it continued to grow strongly. McFall Fuel grows to become a major distributor of BP fuel throughout a large part of the North Island

As the successful bidder took ownership of the Waipa District Council roading assets and won the general maintenance contract for the Waipa District Council. Operating nine hard rock quarries and a sandpit which were strategically placed around the Waikato, the business employed 60 staff and 140 plant items.

McFall Fuel became its own entity as a separate from McFall Enterprises Limited.  From this time on became strongly established in the fuel industry.

In 1998 the company gained I.S.O. 9002 registration.

Was a small lubricant distributor based in Greerton and was purchased to supplement the Te Awamutu service to meet the growing demand for lubricant supply and delivery service in the Bay of Plenty which was covered by Ken Read and Peter Jones selling Fuchs, BP, Castrol, Agip, & Valvoline.

In February 2000 the company was sold to Excell Corporation, who then sold onto Downer in 2009 to become McFall Enterprises.

McFall Lubricants

This sector of the business became an independent packed lubricant distributor in New Zealand selling four main brands – Fuchs, Castrol, BP, & Valvoline.

This was purchased as a wholly owned subsidiary of McFall Fuel Limited. Operating a smaller fleet of tankers that provided for pumping directly into machines and access onto smaller sites.

Direct Fuel was the supreme winner of the Tauranga Westpac Business awards as well as winning the Manufacturing and Distribution award and being finalists in the excellence in Health and safety category.

On September 27 the last fuel delivery night shift for BP was completed by drivers Hayden Holmberg who remains a fuel delivery driver for McFall Fuel and Baden Tawa.

West Oil, a Tauranga lubricant business was acquired in August and saw John Weston & Peter Laird join McFall Fuel

The move from the plain white fleet with the logo to the new look branding was completed with the McFall Fuel Delivery and Ute Fleet.

The prestigious Sir Bob Owens Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Logistics, Supply Chain Sector & Community presented by The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport was awarded to Morris McFall. Having been a member of the Institute for 31 years Morris is considered an industry statesman.

October 5, 1964 Ian James began delivering fuel for BP. In 2004 Ian began working for McFall Fuel, who he still works for today. This achievement was celebrated on October 5, 2014 with a lunch in New Plymouth. James Glidden, Distributor Manager for BP, presented Ian with a plaque to mark the occasion.

Recognition for Safety

Best Performing Haulier Company – Group 2 Wiri. This is an annual Health, Safety, and Environment Award for outstanding and consistent performance awarded by the Wiri Oil Terminal Personnel.

Waikato Trucking Legends

Selected as one of the 10 Transport Companies as a Waikato Truck Legends by NZTA, CIVU, ACC and the Waikato Regional Council.

Shared Services Gets Underway

The Finance & Administration of McFall Fuel and Direct Fuels were drawn together to create a Shared Services approach based in Mount Maunganui.

The Lubricant Logistics Team based in the Mount also took on a shared service approach to meet the delivery and repairs and maintenance needs of both companies.

The Operations Base was provided with more office space in Te Awamutu to enable all fuel delivery to be coordinated from here.

Brand Recognition

February sees the Fleet rebrand selected as a finalist in the PPG Imaging Awards

McFall Fuel & Direct Fuels Merge

March 2015 the decision was made to amalgamate the two companies. Direct Fuels ceases trading on September 1, 2015 and becomes McFall Fuel.

After more than three decades at the helm of McFall Fuel Morris McFall has chosen to step down as Board Chair.

His retirement was announced at the Annual McFall Fuel Conference held in Taupo on July 23, 2016. Morris has made an invaluable contribution to the development and growth of McFall Fuel.

Peter Ritsema who celebrated 30 years with McFall Fuel this year began in the fuel delivery market with Morris. The fleet has grown from one old Ford and the staff has increased to 73, with 36 drivers over this timespan.

On April 1 2017 the McFall Fuel, Rural Fuel merge commenced. The new entity became known as McFall Fuel with Allan McFall as the Managing Director of the new company. The merge gave the family business known well in the upper and central North Island the chance to expand the bulk fuel and lubricant distribution business all the way to Wellington using the McFall Fuel brand and brand imaging.

Rural Fuel ran two fleets with the larger fleet branded Rural Fuel and the smaller fleet were the bright orange Fuel Express trucks.

McFall Fuel lubricant distribution was rolled out across the North Island with Regional Locations in 2018. Lubricants were already available out of Mount Maunganui, Auckland, and Taupo. The other Regional Locations added to the network were Gisborne, Napier, Inglewood, Palmerston North, Masterton, Wellington and Whangarei was added in 2022. The Warehouse situated at Hocking Street in Mount Maunganui is where the distribution is managed from. All Regional Locations are responsible for not only making the distributions easier for customers in their immediate Regions but also for collecting the used 20 litre containers. The Lubricant Team deliver on a weekly, two weekly, or monthly cycle and collect the empty 20 litre containers for reuse and recycling.

A greater emphasis was placed on the importance of recycling and reuse. The 20 litre lubricant containers are collected from customers and the waste oil is drained out of the containers and collected for reuse. The containers are then cleaned to either be reused or recycled. Some containers have been returned over 15 times. About 2,500 containers are collected each month with 70% refilled with chain and bar oil and the other 30% going to a recycling location for other purposes.

The Project to upgrade Office and Yards or build new yards was planned for each location McFall Fuel operated out of. The Gisborne Yard and new Office location was opened in 2020 and commenced the programme for the major redevelopment in a number of Regions and locations.

The McFall Fuel agreed to work with the Fuel Distributors Industry Safety Committee who were working on the advice from WorkSafe and its predecessors regarding the phasing out of non-compliant and unsafe tanks since 1996. The end of life for the Overhead Tripod Tanks Project was put in place because of safety concerns for drivers.

McFall Fuel’s move into Northland saw the family business become truly North Island wide. Toll Petroleum customers were acquired along with the tender to deliver fuel to bp customers in the Northland Region.

This is the final piece in the puzzle for McFall Fuel who now operate out of 10 locations for fuel and 11 for lubricants around the North Island.