Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/464194
14 Oil Prophets Meet Your New P&CMA Chairman David Collins DC Oil Company, Inc., Birmingham, AL When David Collins graduated from Louisiana Tech in 1990 with a degree in Business Management, he never dreamed he would spend his career in the gas station/convenience store business. He interviewed with Texaco right out of college and accepted a job as Assistant Manager at a Texaco corporate station in Baton Rouge for $8/hour. For him, it was a job with upward mobility with a major oil company. He eventually left Louisiana for Atlanta, buying his grandmother's Mercury Marquis and towing the car to Atlanta behind a U-Haul trailer. He later transferred to Birmingham where one of his responsibilities was locating sites for new Texaco stores. It was also in Birmingham that he met his wife Connie in a Singles Sunday School Class. They married in October, 1994. In 1995, David recommended a site in Trussville to Texaco, but the company didn't act on his suggestion. So, David and Connie decided to buy the property themselves, to start their own business and build their own gas station. For the next two years, they were denied bank loans by basically every bank in Birmingham and nearly ran out of money trying to keep the property under contract. In 1997, just as they were about to lose the option on the property, they were approached by a Wendy's franchisee who wanted to buy it. Instead, David suggested they work together to co-brand a convenience store – the franchisee built Wendy's and David leased his portion of the building and sold gasoline. Since David and Connie were still working full-time jobs, they didn't take a salary from the business, DQGWKHVWRUHZDVDEOHWREHSUR¿WDEOH from the beginning. Perhaps because of the quick success RI'DYLG¶V¿UVWVWRUHDEDQNHUFDPH to believe in him saying, "I'm betting on the man not the plan." His belief in David allowed them to purchase a second piece of real estate in 2000. 7KLVEHFDPHWKHVLWHRIWKH¿UVW Quick Shop, named in honor of his grandfather's country store in rural Louisiana. Although that country store is long gone, David keeps a framed FRS\RIWKHÀ\HUKLVJUDQGPRWKHU typed to advertise the store's opening Photo: Diana Johnson