NEWTON, Mass. -- Gulf Oil LP said that it will be rebranding all of the gas stations along the Massachusetts Turnpike to Gulf, which will include the unveiling of its new Gulf Express convenience store.
The 11 "Mass. Pike" locations will serve as the company's launching platform for its new Gulf Sunrise Gasoline & Retail Centers featuring the Gulf Express c-store. Soon after, Gulf plans to rollout this new image across the Northeast.
Beginning later this summer, the 11 highway locations will get the Gulf brand. The locations [image-nocss] are currently branded Exxon, with Tigermart c-stores. Gulf's first upgrades will begin at service areas in Natick, Westborough, and Charlton, without disruption to commuters.
At the upgraded sites, motorists will have access to some of the most advanced dispensers on the market, which will offer a faster experience with a speedier flow of gasoline, the company said. They will also see improved credit card processing time from the average 35-second transaction to just four seconds.
Gulf Oil is headquartered in Massachusetts, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to serve the drivers who travel the Turnpike, said Joseph Petrowski, Gulf Oil's president and CEO. We have committed to significant capital improvements to these Massachusetts Turnpike stations to further improve the public's traveling experience along the turnpike.
He added, Gulf has a vibrant presence throughout the Northeast and continues to expand with more than 2,400 stations in the area. Our service pledge to the motorists of the Turnpike is part of our continuing strategy to make Gulf Oil the premier gasoline retailer in the Northeast. As a company, we remain uniquely and singularly focused on downstream marketing.
The conversion should be done by mid-September, Petrowski told The Boston Globe.
Selling close to 60 million gallons of gasoline annually, the Mass. Pike gas plazas are one of Gulf's most visible Massachusetts marketing opportunities, said the report.
Switching the plazas from the Exxon brand to Gulf is the latest brand-boosting move by Gulf Oil. In early July, Christy's of Cape Cod LLC began rebranding its entire gas station portfolio from CITGO to Gulf. Hyannis, Mass.-based Christy's of Cape Codowned and operated by onetime gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihoshas 15 Christy's Markets, all in Massachusetts.
Petrowski said he hopes to persuade 500 more gas stations across New England to adopt the Gulf brand by 2010, a 26% expansion for the company, which sells through 1,900 independently owned Gulf-branded stations in the Northeast and supplies fuel to 550 Exxon-branded stations.
For us, strategically, upgrading the turnpike stations is a very important move, Petrowski told the Globe. It really is a platform for us to refurbish the Gulf image throughout our operating footprint.
Following the $87 billion merger in 1999 that created ExxonMobil Corp., the company was required by antitrust regulators to divest all of its Exxon-brand stations in New England, but allow new owners to use the well-known Exxon brand and services like the Speedpass instant-charge keychain wand for up to 10 years. Gulf took over the Exxon-branded Mass. Pike stations from ConocoPhillips Corp. in 2003.
By Gulf no longer having to pay a royalty of a few cents a gallon to ExxonMobil for the Exxon name, Petrowski told the newspaper that he hopes the switch will lead to somewhat lower prices for motorists. But, he cautioned, If tomorrow the market gets excited about a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico or something going on in Nigeria, we'll go up 12 cents in a day.
We're pleased to be able to support a Massachusetts-based company, Turnpike spokesperson John Lamontagne told the paper. But the deal is also sweeter for the authority, which expects to collect about $375,000 more in annual royalties and concessions from Gulf for the 11 plazasa 6.5% increasethrough the newly renegotiated pact that lets the company switch from the Exxon name.
The Mass. Pike plazas involved are Natick (eastbound side); Framingham and Westborough (westbound only); and Charlton, Ludlow, Blandford and Lee (both sides).
Gulf Oil, Newton, Mass., is one of the Northeast's largest wholesalers of refined petroleum products. It distributes motor fuels through a network of more than 2,400 Gulf branded gasoline retail centers, 12 proprietary oil terminals and a network of more than 50 other supply terminals. Gulf supplies heating oil, diesel fuel, jet fuel and kerosene to these branded retail outlets through both its Gulf brand and, in the seven states of New England and New York, the Exxon brand. Through its unbranded subsidiary, Great Island Energy, Gulf also supplies petroleum products as well as risk management and financial services to industrial, commercial, and independent retail firms. Gulf, through its ownership interest in World Energy, is also the nation's largest distributor of biodiesel.
Aside from the well-known orange disc logo, the current Gulf Oil has no connection to the oil company founded in 1901, which by the late 1970s ranked as one of the country's 10 biggest manufacturing companies. After Chevron Corp. took over the original Gulf Oil in 1984, Cumberland Farms Inc., the Canton c-store chain, bought the northeastern rights to use the Gulf brand from Chevron and in 1994 set up Gulf Oil LP as a joint venture with Catamount Petroleum Corp. Chevron still owns the Gulf name, said the report.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.