Excentus will pick up the business of rival fuel rewards and technology provider Override, including Supervalu's [image-nocss] Shaw's Supermarkets and Dunkin' Donuts, reported Supermarket News.
Scott Wetzel, vice president of marketing, told the publication that Override, owned by Saint John, New Brunswick-based Fort Reliance Co. Ltd., , a Canadian holding company for Irving Oil's energy businesses, decided to closeits operation. "We are working with their customers as part of a succession strategy so we can bring them over to our technology and keep the fuel reward program going," he said.
The decision follows a December 2009 intellectual property lawsuit brought by Override in Vermont District Court, Brattleboro, against Excentus (dismissed in late April 2010) and the pullout of Shaw's in the Connecticut market earlier this year, the report said.
At the time of the suit, the Override fuel rewards program operated in Vermont, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island, according to court documents. The program permitted consumers who shop at 194 participating Shaw's grocery stores and 1,752 Dunkin' Donut stores to earn gasoline discounts that could be redeemed at 257 participating Irving Oil stations and 189 Gulf stations.
Excentus sued Safeway inJune 2009and Kroger in March 2010 over patent infringement(click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage).Retailers now have the option to cease the Override program at the end of their contracts, continue with Excentus with a fuelperks or private-label program or find another service provider, said Wetzel.
A spokesperson for Override could not be reached for comment, and representatives from Fort Reliance declined to comment, said Supermarket News.
During the transition and integration, Excentus intends to support the existing Override program without service interruption as agreed with Override's participants, Excentus said.
Commercial and IT transition teams from Excentus and Override will manage the conversion for existing Override program participants to the Excentus team and technology.
"We are excited about this opportunity to work with Override's program participants as we continue to enjoy the rapid growth of our fuel rewards business. We believe Override's decision further strengthens our place as the clear market leader through providing our successful fuelperks! program and the breadth of our fuel rewards systems and service offerings," said Dickson Perry, chairman and CEO of Excentus.
"The opportunity to provide business and program continuity to Override's retail participants is a real privilege; we are hopeful and optimistic that we can establish a long-term relationship with all of these retailers within our fuelperks! reward program or through a private-label program relationship," added Brandon Logsdon, executive vice president and general manager of Excentus.
Excentus is the provider of the patent-protected fuelperks! Rewards Programa retail marketing coalition in the United States using fuel as a consumer reward. Headquartered in Dallas, Excentus was founded in 1996. It is a privately held company with more than 150 customers in the United States and Canada.
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