Tom Dwelle, general partner, told CSP Daily News that the company set out to determine a brand for its unbranded sites about five years ago. "My daddy was a pilot, taught us all to fly, and all of my kids fly." Thus, the name Flyers was born to the company that also operates Olympian, Gulf Transportation, Western Energetix and Western Energetix Transportation.
Nellawhich is the [image-nocss] company's patriarch's last name, Allen, spelled backwardshad obtained the other brand names through acquisitions over the years. But Dwelle said it is now time to bring all the brands under one umbrellawith hopes of completion by the end of 2011.
"What we're doing now is to define our brand, to bring synergy to our five companies.... It's brand recognition and integrity, and we can concentrate all our advertising and our marketing," he said, adding that this could mean a substantial cost savings. "Now we can advertise everything all at once."
Chris Nobles, who handles cardlock marketing for Nella, said, "Our goal is to make it easier for retail and commercial customers to recognize and fuel at all of our 80 or so company-owned and managed sites. Company-wide, our fuel network includes about 134 locations, including retail and cardlocks that we own, operate or contract with to accept our commercial fuel cards."
Overall, Nella operations include 79 Olympian cardlock sites in California, 28 Gulf Transportation trucks in California, 35 Flyers retail stations in Northern California, 56 Western Energetix cardlock sites in Nevada and 53 Western Energetix Transportation trucks in Nevada.
The company started design, paint and signage updates at corporate-owned cardlocks24 Olympian and 21 Western Energetixand plans to complete those changes over the next few months.
Nella Oil Company owns and operates Flyers and Olympian retail convenience stores in northern California. In addition, Nella is a branded distributor of Chevron, Shell and Valero fuels for both wholesale and retail customers. Nella currently operates two chains of cardlock fuel sites: Olympian in California and Western Energetix in Nevada. NELLA's transportation division comprises two fleets of fuel transports supplying independent dealers, jobbers and other commercial end-users in California and Nevada, respectively.
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