CHICAGO -- Four months after announcing its plans to sell its company-owned and -operated retail sites to franchisees, dealers and jobbers, BP placed another 78 sites on the sale block yesterday, as reported in a CSP Daily News Flash. The sale of the Chicago-area stores also will help the Big Oil company achieve another goal, expanding and growing its ampm brand to reach more consumers with its products and services.
“The ampm brand has a 30-year proven track record in some of the most competitive marketing areas in the U.S.,” said Fiona MacLeod, president of BP U.S. Convenience [image-nocss] Retail. “Franchising under the ampm brand across the U.S. just makes sense.”
Diversity and inclusion continue to be important parts of BP 's franchising efforts. In 2006, BP began an initiative to recruit minority franchisees, and that work will continue. “As much as possible, we want ampm stores to be owned and operated by people who live in the communities we serve,” said MacLeod.
BP has retained NRC Realty Advisors LLC to coordinate the sale of the 78 sites, 65 of which are available for franchise, three as de-branded gasoline sites, 10 as BP dealer sites (with fuel agreements only) and four with multiple offerings, including commercial use. The franchise sites will be re-imaged or developed as ampm franchise stores with BP-branded gasoline.
NRC will accept offers submitted by Tuesday, April 8, 2008. Those interested in submitting offers to become prospective franchisees and BP dealers are required to attend a seminar in Chicago. Representatives from BP and NRC will host the seminar, which will provide essential information related to BP franchising and fuel supply and the NRC offering process. Reservations and a completed franchise application are required for attendance. More information is available by contacting NRC at (800) 747-3342, Ext. 803, or at www.nrc.com/bp.
BP owns and operates about 700 company-owned and -operated convenience stores, which will be sold over a two-year period.
In recent weeks, BP 's U.S. Convenience Retail unit also put 48 Atlanta-area sites and another 56 sites in markets across the country, including Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland and Seattle, among others, on the market, as previously reported by CSP Daily News.
Houston-based BP markets more than 15 billion gallons of gasoline every year to U.S. consumers through 13,000 retail outlets. The ampm brand was founded in 1978 in Southern California by ARCO. The brand became part of BP when it acquired ARCO in 2000. Additional information on BP 's franchising opportunities is available at www.bpampmfranchising.com.
“The ampm franchise is very strong,” MacLeod said. “The ampm franchise was the only convenience store owned by an integrated oil and gas company to make Entrepreneur 's 2008 ‘Franchise 500, ' where its West of Rockies operations ranked 35th, and the Franchise Times ' Top 200, where its West of Rockies operations ranked 39th.”
Chicago-based NRC Realty Advisors LLC specializes in the accelerated sale of North American commercial real estate property. With a concentration in the convenience store industry, NRC provides divestiture, commercial and financial advisory real-estate services.Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.