WARRENVILLE, Ill. -- Add Minneapolis to the list of markets in which BP has sold its company-owned convenience stores, and expect similar announcement to come regarding markets in New Jersey, Ohio and other areas of the country as the Big Oil company continues to winnow down its number of company-owned stores in an effort to improve profitability.
We're basically continuing our strategy of putting more and more of our assets into the hands of jobbers and now franchisees, BP spokesperson Scott Dean told CSP Daily News. In our view, this is the best way [image-nocss] to profitably grow the retail brand. And in doing so, when you increase the number of franchisee dealers and jobbers you have, that allows the company to reduce its costs and increase efficiencies.
As such, Dean said there will be job reductions in the BP c-store group in the field and in the corporate offices in California and Illinois. The natural outgrowth of the strategy will be a reduction of retail staff and BP direct employees over the next few years, he said. It only goes hand in hand with reducing your involvement in company-operated sites. Dean said that reduction in staffing could reach as high as 40% over the next couple of years, as reported by other sources.
To date, BP has already sold all its c-stores in, among other markets, Detroit, Nashville, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, St. Louis and St. Paul, most while retaining the sites for the BP brand, as previously reported in CSP Daily News. Sources say that the company is expected to close in the next few weeks on stores in Minneapolis.
Meanwhile, officials announced plans during a company meeting last week to sell its sites in other markets. We're looking to market our real estate to jobbers and possibly dealers in places like New Jersey and a large area of Ohio, including company-owned sites in Youngtown, Toledo, Dayton, the Akron/Canton area and parts of western Cincinnati, by year's end, Dean said. Additional markets will likely be added to that list in the coming year or so.
Of the 13,000 BP-branded c-stores in the United States, about 10,000 are currently owned and operated by jobbers and dealers, according to Dean. And of the remaining company-owned stores, BP actually operates only about 1,000 of the sites. We'll definitely be reducing that 1,000 number significantly, said Dean.
However, the company has no plans to get out of retailing altogether, he added. We will absolutely continue to be involved in the owning and operating of convenience stores, but we will be directly operating and owning less of them in the coming years, Dean said. We haven't put a specific number out there yet, but the number of sites that we own and operate will definitely be in the minority. But we will maintain a sufficient number in key markets so that we can make sure that the brand continues to be represented as the quality brand that it is and to continue to make improvements and innovations in the offer.
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