ANDERSON, Ind. -- Ricker Oil Co. Inc. said yesterday that it has reached agreement with BP to purchase all 32 of BP's company-operated or -supplied stores in the greater Indianapolis area. As reported in a CSP Daily News Flash, Ricker Oil plans to operate or supply the Indianapolis market sites by the end of October with the majority of these stores remaining ampm franchised. The company is a BP and Marathon supplier and said that it looks to further expand the ampm franchise in the near future.
BP's U.S. Convenience Retail unit announced in November 2007 that it would sell its approximately 700 [image-nocss] company-owned and -operated retail sites over a two-year period as part of its plans to expand the ampm brand.
"We're excited to be a significant retailer in the Indianapolis metropolitan area," said company president Jay Ricker, "and look forward to serving our loyal customers."
He added, "The current employees have contributed greatly to BP's success, and we look forward to their continued employment. I'd also like to thank our main lending institution, M&I Bank, for helping finance this new venture."
With this acquisition, Ricker Oil is now one of the largest Indiana-based petroleum retailers and suppliers, it said. In addition to the 32 sites Ricker Oil has acquired, it also operates 29 stores and supplies another 35 dealer locations, all located in Indiana. The chain's current locations are in or near Anderson, Muncie and Fort Wayne, as well as on Indianapolis's north side.
Ricker's marketing department buys for a co-op of locations including stores for Ricker Oil, Dawson Oil Co. Inc., Johnson's Junction, Midland Co-op and HRF Amaco.
Founded in 1979, Ricker Oil is a family-owned company based in Anderson, Ind. It owns and operates Ricker's convenience stores, as well as a petroleum distributorship and other enterprises. The company perhaps is best known by its loyal customers for its Ricker Pop beverages. It also operates Ricker's Bakery to supply its stores.
BP markets more than 15 billion gallons of gasoline every year to U.S. consumers through 13,000 retail outlets. The company is the single, global brand formed by the combination of the former British Petroleum, Amoco, Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) and Burmah Castrol.
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.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."
Click here to read more about BP's transition to ampm in the April issue of CSP magazine.
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