TULSA, Okla. -- – Sinclair Oil is rebranding several of its Tulsa, Okla.-area gas stations to its own flag, marking a return of the iconic green dinosaur to Oklahoma's second-largest market, reported The Journal Record. And as reported in a CSP Daily News Flash yesterday, the refiner-marketer is expanding its Tulsa retail presence with a multimillion-dollar acquisition of 14 Fiesta Mart Convenience Stores from Arkansas Valley Petroleum Inc.
"We're replacing the Phillips, Shell and Valero brand with Sinclair Fuels," Larry Rogers, general manager of retail marketing with Sinclair Marketing [image-nocss] Inc., told the newspaper. "We haven't had a strong brand presence in Tulsa for many years. I'm told 20 to 30 years."
Salt Lake City-based Sinclair, which last year started a $1 billion expansion of its Tulsa refinery, intends to continue operating these stores under the Fiesta Mart name, supplying them with Sinclair-branded gasoline produced at the Arkansas River refinery, the report said.
Neither Sinclair nor Weister Smith, owner of Arkansas Valley, would release financial details. But individual warranty deeds filed with the Tulsa County Courthouse cited by the newspaper indicate sale prices ranged from $1.08 million for a store in Broken Arrow, sold by the W.O. Smith Trust, and $898,000 for a Fiesta Mart location in Tulsa, to $685,000 for another location and $577,000 for another store.
Rogers said Sinclair would soon begin a marketing campaign to celebrate the large-scale return of Dino, the green brontosaurus that has adorned Sinclair stations and billboards since the 1930s. "You will see television advertising here in the next week or two," he told the paper. "We have about 80 Sinclair-branded locations in and around the outskirts and rural areas."
Adding these 14 c-stores brings the total number of Oklahoma stations retailing Sinclair gasoline to 261, said the report. Rogers expects this to grow both organically and through acquisition as the refinery enhancements are completed.
"This was a great opportunity for us," he added. "The future depends on how we do with this acquisition and what presents itself in the future."
Sinclair now sells its branded gasoline at more than 2,600 stations in 21 states, said the Journal Record.
"The Sinclair brand has been growing rapidly throughout the state of Oklahoma," Rogers said. "This is in direct correlation to our refinery expansion."The move was a perfect fit based on the corporate values shared by Sinclair and Arkansas Valley Petroleum, such as "integrity in the conduct of business" and the "value of the individual employee," Duff Thompson, president of Fiesta Mart, told The Tulsa Business Journal.
Smith plans to move toward retirement and this sale was the first phase of his succession plan, according to the report.
Tulsa-based Arkansas Valley Petroleum has been a wholesale fuel distributor for 36 years and a Sinclair distributor for more than 15 years. In 2007, Arkansas Valley Petroleum and its sister company, AVP Metro Petroleum, sold more than 100 million gallons of fuel between its wholesale customers and Fiesta Mart operations, with sales in excess of $250 million. In addition to operating the stores, AVP Metro supplies more than 100 independent retailers in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas and hauls about 95% of its fuel sales through its AVP Metro Transportation and Bulk Plant facility in west Tulsa.
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