WEST POINT, Ga. -- Chattahoochee Oil Co. Inc.'s acquisition of Wilson Oil Co., Auburn, Ala., creating a one of the larger full-service multibranded jobbers operating in the Southeast, was driven by the logic of geography, Loring F. Perez, president of West Point, Ga.-based Chattahoochee Oil, told CSP Daily News.
Perez explained the that Auburn, Ala., is 30 miles from West Point, Ga. "The two companies' synergies work in terms of being close together--Chattahoochee markets in Macon, Ga., and central Georgia, and Montgomery and Birmingham, Ala., and Columbus, Ga., and all points in between. Wilson Oil is generally in Alabama, and has a couple locations in Georgia, but mostly concentrated in a 50-mile radius from Auburn. So it's a natural marriage."
He added, "It puts us stronger in the markets we're already in. Auburn is right in the middle of Chattahoochee Oil's market geographically."
The deal was a long time coming, too. "We've been working on this deal for almost a year, and the owners of Wilson Oil are in their 60s, so they were looking to retire," said Perez. "We've been talking to them for a few years, and we finally came to an understanding after two attempts at deals that didn't work. And then, of course, we had this 'great' banking environment, which delayed everything for many months. But we finally came to a number and got it done."
As reported in a Morgan Keegan/CSP Daily News Flash yesterday, the combined company services more than 225 retail dealers and commercial, farming and industrial accounts, distributing motor fuel and oil products both on its own trucks and by common carrier.
Of the 225 customers, there are approximately 125 dealers that run gas stations and convenience stores that Chattahoochee Oil delivers to. Of that number, post-merger, there are 40 that it controls either by ownership, by lease control or some other form of ownership. Of those, with the merger, Chattahoochee Oil operates four locations. The other 100 customers are commercial, industrial and farming.
Chattahoochee Oil is now a branded jobber for Shell, Chevron, BP, Marathon and Sunoco. It also distributes unbranded fuel through its proprietary Big Cat (named after the Auburn University Tigers football team), QS, Lo-Buck$ names, as well as Liberty and Crown licenses. It operates in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.
With the merger, Chattahoochee will relocate its corporate office to Auburn from West Point. Chattahoochee is a "21st-century oil company, and Wilson Oil is a traditional jobber. We don't have any tanks or trucks in West Point. We could literally be anywhere, because it's all on paper--we broker gas. We buy from the terminal, sell to the dealer and it's carried by common carrier. [Wilson Oil] actually has a bulk plant and trucks. It's logical for us to go there."
Perez was CFO of Spectrum Oil. Chattahoochee Oil was a subsidiary of Spectrum Stores, founded by Perez in 2000. He and his business partner, Mashud Reza, bought it in 2006 when Spectrum Stores was sold to Circle K.
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