CHICAGO -- BP's western U.S. and international ampm convenience store was ranked 35th in Entrepreneur's 29th annual Franchise 500, billed as the world's "first, best and most comprehensive" ranking of franchises.
Ampm's western U.S. and international operations were also ranked 76th in Entrepreneur's list of America's Top 100 Growth Franchises. Companies are judged based on criteria including financial strength and stability, growth rate, system size and number of years in business. Ampm is the only convenience store owned by an integrated [image-nocss] oil and gas company to make the list.
"We are honored to be part of this prestigious group and are pleased that we moved up from 51st last year, said Fiona MacLeod, president of BP U.S. Convenience Retail. Two thousand and seven was a growth year for us, and we expect to continue to grow our franchise as we spread the ampm brand to the eastern part of the U.S. We have a fantastic brand, a great franchise and franchisees that are as passionate as we are about ampm.
Other convenience chains to rank in the Top 500 were 7-Eleven at No. 1 (Click here to read related story.) and Circle K at No. 17. Click here to view the complete results of Entrepreneur's 29th annual study.
The ampm brand was founded in 1978 in Southern California by ARCO, which was acquired by BP in 2000. Recently, BP announced that it will sell its U.S. company-owned and company-operated convenience stores over the next two years, and that all will operate under the ampm brand.
The majority of sites will be sold to franchisees; some will also be sold to dealers and large distributors. The sites will continue to market BP fuels in the eastern U.S. and ARCO fuels in the western U.S. The franchise agreement requires sites to be supplied with BP or ARCO branded fuels for the term of the 20-year contract. Internationally, about 2,000 ampm stores are located in Brazil, Japan and Mexico.
BP markets more than 15 billion gallons of gasoline every year to U.S. consumers through 13,000 retail outlets. All Amoco fuels are backed by a written guarantee. BP is the single, global brand formed by the combination of the former British Petroleum, Amoco Corp., Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) and Burmah Castrol. Additional information on BP's franchising opportunities is available at www.bpfranchising.com.
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