INDIANAPOLIS -- BP Products North America Inc.'s ampm is offering a franchising event on June 12, 2008, in Indianapolis at the Marriott Indianapolis Downtown. The event is called Discovery Day Midwest, and it is designed to recruit entrepreneurs for ampm-branded convenience store locations with BP-branded gasoline throughout Indiana and Ohio.
The company offers proprietary programs for fast food, coffee and fountain drinks. It also offers marketing, branding and media advertising to help support business growth.
Options include developing a new-to-industry ampm facility including [image-nocss] land acquisition and construction of the improvements, rebranding an existing (non ampm) gasoline c-store facility or making a competitive bid on an existing BP ampm company-owned, company-operated facility.
Developing a new to industry ampm facility provides an opportunity to select a specific geographical location that meets both an entrepreneur's needs and meets the site requirements for the ampm franchise. Entrepreneurs will have an option to access BP's existing infrastructure including construction project management and architectural design experts to help provide a smooth and seamless construction process. They also may be eligible for financial incentives that can be applied to the construction costs.
For rebranding an existing, non-ampm facility, in the construction process, entrepreneurs will have an option to access BP's existing infrastructure including construction project management and architectural design experts. They also may be eligible for financial incentives.
And from time to time, BP may elect to sell and franchise via a competitive sealed-bid process company-owned, company-operated facilities.
The ampm brand was founded in 1978 in Southern California by ARCO, which BP acquired in 2000; ampm had operated only in the western United States—in California, Nevada, Arizona, Washington and Oregon—with franchisees owning or operating about 1,000 ampm-branded c-stores. BP said in early 2007 that ampm would become its national brand, supplanting BP Connect, which had been the brand east of the Rocky Mountains.
BP has been selling ampm franchises in the eastern United States, in the Chicago, Atlanta, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh marketing areas.
In November 2007, BP announced that it would sell its approximately 700 company-owned and -operated retail sites over a two-year period. BP is marketing these sites predominately as franchise-operated sites, both dealer- and jobber-owned. It is also marketing some sites as dealer and jobber fuel-only sites. This approach is in line with BP's strategic plans to expand and grow the ampm brand to reach more consumers with its products and services, it said.
“The ampm brand has a 30-year proven track record in some of the most competitive marketing areas in the U.S.,” Fiona MacLeod, president of BP U.S. Convenience Retail, said earlier this year. “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.
Click hereto read more about BP's transition to ampm in the April issue of CSP magazine.
Click hereto register for Discovery Day Midwest.
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