SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Exxon Mobil Corp.'s On the Run convenience stores are starting to depart Upstate New York and Central New York, reported The Syracuse Post-Standard. Mobil rival Sunoco appears to be getting a firmer grip on the major oil company gasoline/c-store business, the newspaper said, citing Mobil operators.
"This has all been bewildering to us," Art Hayes, a longtime Mobil operator and owner of Carrier Circle Mobil, told the paper. Hayes is also an officer with the Service Station & Repair Shop Operators of Upstate New York.
Hayes said he [image-nocss] is not getting any answers from Mobil, and ExxonMobil did not respond to the paper's request for comment.
Sunoco in early January closed on the acquisition of 25 On the Run locations from Bethlehem, Pa.-based petroleum marketer Lehigh Gas Corp., which sold a total of 40 stations in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
A Lehigh spokesperson also declined to comment to the paper n this story.
Ralph Bombardiere, executive director of the New York State Association of Service Stations & Repair Shops, told the Post-Standard that ExxonMobil is leaving the New York state market as a retailer, likely by the end of the month.
"On the Run was a Mobil creation and On the Run is taking a walk," said Bombardiere.
ExxonMobil has been divesting retail locations for several years.
In early 2009, Laval, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. acquired the On the Run convenience store franchise system from Irving, Texas-based ExxonMobil. Couche-Tard was to take control of the franchise agreements for approximately 450 On the Run stores operated by ExxonMobil-branded fuel dealers and distributors.
By summer, Hayes told the paper, Sunoco is "going to have a huge, huge impact" in the region. But not on the Thruway. Hayes said Lehigh will keep the Thruway rest stops under the Mobil name.
"It's a sad day," he added. "Most of us Mobil owners were proud owners. We loved the image, the gas, everything. Mobil used to even have a district office in Syracuse.... It looks like the Mobil brand is being dismantled."
Bombardiere said, "The stations won't be supplied by Mobil or owned by Mobil. They will be supplied by a distributor. That's already happening on the Thruway and to a lot of Mobil station owners."
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