HOPEWELL JUNCTION, N.Y. -- SNK Petroleum Wholesalers is opening the first of several Amoco-branded fuel sites as part of its new distributorship with BP.
The fuel distributor, which has been branded with Gulf Oil since its founding in 2011, recently signed on with BP, giving it access to both major oils’ brands. It will open the first two of several Amoco-branded sites in Westchester and Rockland counties in New York, with more to follow this summer. CEO Ali Kirmani told CSP Daily News that SNK will also brand locations to BP where it makes sense.
“With BP moving up north, they want to grow in this market. We want to grow in this market,” Kirmani said. Meanwhile, customers’ recognition of the Amoco fuel brand remains. “They love the Amoco brand,” he said.
BP reintroduced Amoco in late 2017 after a more than 10-year hiatus to address any proximity conflicts for BP-branded retailers who want to continue to grow with the major oil company. The first sites opened in New York and New Jersey.
For SNK, the new distributorship helps it reach its ambitious plans to double in size by 2020 and ultimately reach 250 fueling locations and more than 300 million gallons in fuel sales per year. Kirmani said it will do so a few stores at a time, acquiring underperforming sites that it can fix up, update and turn around, and price aggressively on fuel.
Kirmani purchased his first gas station—a Gulf-branded site—in 2001, and became a Gulf Oil distributor in 2011.
In 2017, SNK Petroleum opened two new Gulf-branded locations in New York. Since June 2017, SNK has acquired 16 new sites to total 66 mainly fee locations in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Hopewell Junction, N.Y., based distributor expects its 2018 volumes to reach more than 100 million gallons.
“There is now a sense of acceptance of SNK by major oil as an affirmed member of the retail and wholesale fuels industry,” said Kirmani. “The next chapter of our history is now being written.”
Photo courtesy of Phillip Leara.
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