BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- With the closing of its purchase of the marketing assets of Price Oil Co., Montgomery, Ala., on Tuesdayas reported in a CSP Daily News FlashMoore Oil Co. cemented its position as the largest gasoline and diesel supplier to retailers in Alabama.
"This is a good move for us," Ronald J. Moore, president and CEO of Birmingham, Ala.-based Moore Oil, told the Birmingham News. "It puts us throughout Alabama, in Mobile and Montgomery. Our concentration now is pretty much northern Alabama."
Though it has focused [image-nocss] primarily on 12 counties north of Birmingham, Moore Oil has had customers south of the city. The deal greatly expands the company's southward sweep, Moore said. "We're real excited about this additional step that we've taken into this south market because this puts us into the Panhandle of Florida that we have been wanting to access for a good while," he said.
The purchase gives Moore Oil an additional 105 supply contracts, bringing to 230 the gas stations its services from Nashville to the Florida Panhandle. That includes 45 stations in the Mobile metro area, Moore said. Moore also own half-interest in A&M Oil Co., Tuscaloosa, Ala. That company handles an additional five-county area, including Huntsville, Ala., Moore told CSP Daily News. So we have a market presence in all of those [markets].
Moore Oil, a family-held business with 125 retail outlets, now distributes gasoline from ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil, BP and CITGO. It also purchased in the same transaction Montgomery-based Torque Transportation LLC, a bulk petroleum hauling company and subsidiary of Price Oil. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Moore said the transaction was funded with in-house cash.
Attempts to reach the former owners of Price Oil for comment were unsuccessful.
Moore said in a press release that strategically, these acquisitions would be excellent complements to our network in Alabama and would effectively enhance our overall expansion plans. Consistent with our development strategy, we selected these 105 stores based on the following criteria: Under our operation model and with the efficiency of our marketing program, these facilities would contribute to improve the competitiveness of the company.
He also anticipates cost savings once the sales and accounting departments of the two companies are merged.
In 2004, Price Oil had about 140 dealers in Alabama and northwest Florida and 20 company-owned stores under the Lion's Pride and Roadmaster Food Store brands. As reported in CSP Daily News in mid-January, Price Oil closed all but one of its stores in Alabama and Florida and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following what the company called an unprofitable 2005 in court documents. The owners, E. Myers Armstrong and Freida P. Armstrong, also cited financial difficulties caused by the escalating price of gasoline following hurricanes Katrina and Wilma.
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