HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- Wilson Fuel Co. Ltd. and Esso Imperial Oil have reached an agreement that will see Wilson's take over the ownership of 20 Esso gas stations in New Brunswick (15) and Prince Edward Island (5) in Canada, said The Telegraph-Journal. Imperial also sold four gasoline stations to Ontario-based Global Fuels.
Kevin McCann, operations and sales manager for Wilson Fuel New Brunswick, described the multi-million dollar deal as a match made in heaven, for his company. I think it gives us a better market presence and control over [image-nocss] our destiny on a move-forward basis, he told the newspaper.
He said the companies have been working on the deal for more than a year. It's been talked about for about 18 months, and the agreement was arranged about eight to 10 months ago, he said. We're just finally taking possession of the assets now and within the next six weeks we'll own them all.
Alan Jeffers, spokesperson for Calgary, Alberta-based Imperial Oil, said the sale was just part of the company's business strategy. Essentially why we do this is, it's really just a way to improve the return on our assets, he told the paper. We continue to look for new ways to grow our sales, and we take a number of different approaches depending on what's going on in any particular market. So, for example, we'll open new Esso stations that we operate, that the company operates, in some areas, and in some areas we use a different business approach such as retail branded distributor, which is what we call this process.
Jeffers added that the sale doesn't signal the exit of his company from the gasoline market in the region. Imperial will still supply the gasoline and oil products, but Halifax, N.S.-based Wilson's will be responsible for distributing them.
According to McCann, the Esso brand name will still be on the fuel side of the stations, but the convenience stores will be changed to the Wilson's brand name, Go Stores, according to the report.
Jeffers said the change will be somewhat invisible to consumers.
But McCann said people will notice a change. We're looking forward to being in the retail gasoline market in the provinces of New Brunswick and PEI, and I think you'll see some great differences in the stations and how they're run, and we'll probably do some investment in cleaning them up and spicing them up a bit, he told The Telegraph-Journal.
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