IRVING, Texas -- Excentus Corp., the provider of the fuelperks! gasoline reward program and a major provider of fuel-based marketing programs, technology and integration services, and AutoGas Systems Inc., said that they have entered into an agreement under which Excentus has acquired Centego Marketing, a wholly owned subsidiary of AutoGas. In addition to its own Fuel Rewards intellectual property, Centego owns all of the fuel reward and cross-marketing patents, trademarks and technology previously owned by AutoGas.
Under the agreement, AutoGas becomes a shareholder and partner of Excentus, [image-nocss] and Randy Nicholson, president and CEO of AutoGas, will join Excentus' board. The transaction does not include AutoGas' REGAL POS business, which will remain with AutoGas.
"We have been in discussions with AutoGas over the last few months regarding licensing their intellectual property related to our fuel rewards business. As we learned more about their IP portfolio, particularly with the addition of the newest patent and current patent applications, it became very clear that combining our market leadership, especially around our fuelperks! reward program, with their IP portfolio made for an outstanding partnership", said Dickson Perry, president and CEO of Irving, Texas-based Excentus.
For the past eight years, Excentus has been providing fuel reward technology and services for more than 50 U.S. retailers. Three months ago, Excentus launched its fuelperks! reward program, which now has more than five million consumers participating; the company has projected that it will reach 15 million consumers by the end of 2009, and 50 to 100 million over the next three to five years.
In 1996, Abilene, Texas-based AutoGas filed its first patent applications, and in 2000 received its first patent from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office regarding fuel cross-marketing and rewards. During the eight years since the first patent was awarded, AutoGas has received or acquired seven other patents and filed many supplementary patent additions covering various aspects of fuel cross-marketing and rewards.
Meanwhile, Panama City, Fla.-based Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. has partnered with Excentus to pilot fuelperks! As part of the pilot program, which launched yesterday in the grocer 's 11 Panama City locations, the Winn-Dixie Customer Reward Card (CRC) has been redesigned to include the company 's new logo and a magnetic stripe. For every qualified $50 purchase customers make using their new CRC, they will receive a 10-cent-per-gallon fuel discount redeemable at any one of 13 locations.
Customers receive fuelperks! information instantly on the bottom of their sales receipts, including “current fuelperks! earned for this shopping trip,” “overall fuelperks! earned to date,” “expiration dates of fuelperks! earned” and “fuelperks! balance.” Customers can also visit www.winn-dixie.com/fuelperks to view their account balances at any time.
Jacksonville, Fla.-based Winn-Dixie currently operates 521 retail grocery locations, including more than 400 in-store pharmacies, in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Mississippi.
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