HOUSTON -- Nehru jackets, Twiggy and go-go boots. What do these things have in common? They were all new and exciting in 1965, but no one thinks much about them at all these days. There was another major event that year. A new gasoline brand made its debut, emerging from the old Cities Service Co. The new brand was called CITGO. A lot of things have come and gone since 1965, but the CITGO brand is still alive.
The Cities Service brand, named for its quality service to cities, had become a mouthful for customers who were becoming accustomed to more streamlined [image-nocss] brand names such as Exxon, ARCO and Sunoco. When the company determined to change its marketing brand name, 80,000 names were proposed by members of the company and the general public. The resulting moniker retained the first syllable of its long-standing name and ended with GO to imply power, energy and progressiveness. The now familiar CITGO Trimark was born.
The new brand was unveiled across the United States on May 16, 1965, and was accompanied by the introduction of a new gasoline, CITGO Premium with titanium, and ERO, Extra Range Oil. Today, the CITGO Trimark sits atop more than 13,300 signs at branded retail outlets across the country, each independently owned. CITGO sells more than 14.2 billion gallons of gasoline and is ranked as one of the top five gasoline marketers in the United States.
Without our loyal customers, we would not be celebrating this anniversary, said CITGO Petroleum Corporation President and CEO F alix Rodr a guez. But the longevity and popularity of the CITGO brand is really a tribute to everyone at Cities Service and CITGO who preceded us, and the current group of dedicated employees. Were it not for their tireless efforts through the years, the CITGO brand would have gone the way of many other brands that are no longer seen on the nation's highways and by-ways.
Today's anniversary will be observed at CITGO facilities across the country. In Houston, CITGO employees and the 40th anniversary of the brand were recognized yesterday by the Houston Astros Baseball Clubnow owned by Drayton McLanealso marking its 40th anniversary this year.
CITGO, based in Houston, is a refiner, transporter and marketer of transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals, refined waxes, asphalt and other industrial products. The company is owned by PDV America Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petr aleos de Venezuela SA, the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
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