SAN ANTONIO -- Valero Energy Corp. is eliminating more than 100 positions in its retail division, offering early retirement to managers above store-level rank as part of a restructuring. About 130 retail managers are eligible for a retirement package, Valero spokesperson Bill Day told the San Antonio Express-News.
As reported by CSP Daily News in early March, Valero is implementing a profit-improvement initiative to rein in retail overhead costs. The initiative will result in a remade organizational structure. It will also include the opening of about 100 [image-nocss] new stores, the company said on Friday.
We are creating a standalone retail organization within Valero where we have total control over all of our overhead expenses, Gary Arthur, senior vice president of retail for Valero, told CSP Daily News in March. As a part of this initiative, we will be streamlining our retail organization by offering a voluntary early-retirement program to all eligible employees over the next few months. This is a very positive initiative that has been well-received by our retail organization.
Day told the Express-News on Friday, "This is not a layoff." Those who choose not to accept the retirement offer can go into a pool where they'll be eligible for jobs elsewhere in the refining and marketing company. Those who don't take another job can take a voluntary severance package, he said.
The company expects to complete the changes by June 1, said the report. Valero has about 600 jobs that rank above its store-level posts and a total 10,740 jobs in all of its retail division.
San Antonio-based Valero is revamping its retail division in a move to boost profits by reducing overhead costs. The changes are designed "to help Valero be more competitive in the convenience industry and more efficient in day-to-day operations," the company said in an e-mailed statement cited by the Express-News.
"The restructuring is based, in part, on a 2006 study of Valero's retail business," the company said. The plan aims to strengthen Valero's company-owned network of stores and to focus on improvements to food-service programs and upgrades such as lighting, layouts and new merchandise racking systems, it said.
Also, the profit improvement plan is designed to let store managers make more decisions on pricing and selection of store merchandise.
As part of the retail restructuring, Valero will add more than 100 new company stores during the next five years. San Antonio will see the changes first, with a "significant number" of larger format stores planned for the local market, the company said.
The average size of Valero's retail stores in San Antonio is 2,400 square feet. Most of the new stores will be more than twice as large at 5,500 square feet, Day said.
During the push to add the bigger retail stores, Valero will add 2,700 jobs, the report said. More than 100 will be managerial posts, but Day said the "vast majority will be added at the store level, including some part-time jobs."
Valero has approximately 3,500 branded wholesale outlets, giving the company more than 4,500 locations in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean under various brand names, including Valero, Diamond Shamrock, Shamrock, Ultramar and Beacon.
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