CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- Susser Holdings Corp. said it has completed the rebranding both of its convenience stores to the Stripes brand and its retail fueling islands to the Valero brand.
Our dual rebranding campaign is a key element in our growth strategy, said Ron Coben, Susser's chief marketing officer. Through Stripes, we can continue to expand across both our existing markets and into new ones under a single convenience store brand that we can control and shape into a premier, proprietary regional name.
He added, The Valero [image-nocss] fuel brand has strong identity across our markets, and the new supply agreement we signed last year with Valero ensures that we have access to stable, long-term supplies of motor fuel to accommodate our retail store growth plan.
Susser began rebranding its convenience stores from the Circle K licensed brand to its own proprietary Stripes brand in the second quarter of 2006.
The main goal of this campaign was to transfer the goodwill that we have earned over the last decade as Circle K into even stronger customer loyalty as Stripes, Coben said. The conversion has gone very smoothly, and we are well on our way to building a regional brand with which our customers can identify.
With the store signage change now complete, Susser will follow its earlier Stripes are in, Circles are out media campaign with a new advertising campaign scheduled to roll out in March in its major markets, with TV, radio and outdoor advertising.
Susser began rebranding its fueling islands from CITGO to Valero in the third quarter after signing a new 12-year supply agreement in July 2006. San Antonio-based Valero is the No. 1 rack fuel marketer in Texas, the companies said, and is the largest refiner in the United States, with refineries and distribution facilities located close to Susser's market stronghold in the southern half of Texas. All of the retail stores that were supplied by CITGO are now supplied by Valero.
Construction crews will be completing punch lists and cosmetics during the first quarter.
Corpus Christi, Texas-based Susser Holdings is the leading nonrefiner convenience store operator and motor fuel distributor in Texas, it said. In 2006, Susser opened 16 new retail locations and closed 10 as part of its ongoing strategy to upgrade the size, quality and location of its c-store/fueling chain. At year-end 2006, Susser had 325 retail storeswith more than 145 Laredo Taco Co. restaurants located in the Stripes storesand it expects to open 18 to 22 new retail stores in its primary markets in Texas in 2007.
During the past year, Susser added 30 new units to its wholesale network and discontinued branded wholesale supply to nine locations. At year-end, the company supplied 367 locations in its dealer network.
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