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Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Posted: April 30th, 2018, 8:39 pm
by storewanderer
Funny.

I expect all of the Tesoro convenience stores (Giant, Howdy's, USA, SuperAmerica) will be getting rolled into Speedway after this. It will be most interesting to see what happens to the Arco/AM PM arrangement that Tesoro has... Funny since SuperAmerica was once part of Speedway and remained on its loyalty program all these years...

Good riddance to Giant, Howdy's, and USA. These were just never very good c-store operators. Prices were always a little too high, stores were always a little too inconsistent.

Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Posted: May 1st, 2018, 8:48 am
by BillyGr
storewanderer wrote: April 30th, 2018, 8:39 pm Good riddance to Giant, Howdy's, and USA. These were just never very good c-store operators. Prices were always a little too high, stores were always a little too inconsistent.
Don't be too surprised if some of that inconsistency remains - since Speedway took over the Hess stores a couple years back, they have only done a little bit in some locations, while others still only have some of the items/offers that they have.

Of course, that is to be expected to some degree, since the Hess locations (at least around here) range from full sized free-standing stores, to stores that fit "between the pumps" to at least one that could very well be the old Hess building from the days of full service (just big enough for the cashier with room for a couple coffee pots and a couple coolers of bottled drinks), making it impossible to offer everything at every store.

Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Posted: May 1st, 2018, 10:39 am
by jamcool
Most of the USA branded sites in SoCal have been rebranded ARCO. As to am/pm, does Marathon want to keep paying BP to use the name, or do they buy the brand to use out West instead of Speedway.

Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Posted: May 1st, 2018, 11:27 pm
by storewanderer
jamcool wrote: May 1st, 2018, 10:39 am Most of the USA branded sites in SoCal have been rebranded ARCO. As to am/pm, does Marathon want to keep paying BP to use the name, or do they buy the brand to use out West instead of Speedway.
It will be interesting to see how many of the multi-site operator (previously corporate owned) sites they "take back" now. So far in California in the past 7-8 months they've taken back about 50 multi-site operator sites and converted them back to corporate sites (Western/Giant is currently in charge of these sites but has yet to puts its brand onto them; the "hello my name is" name tags are quite tacky along with the "ice cold to go" fountain cups and frankly they should just use the Giant name in California for now and stop this crap).

I don't expect Speedway to do anything revolutionary but at least a consistent product offering and some consistent specials will be a good thing, along with a strong loyalty program.

Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Posted: May 4th, 2018, 7:57 am
by jamcool
Apparently they are going to brand all company owned sites Speedway, what happens to the Giant sites that sell major brand fuel (Shell, Conoco,76)? And what about am/pm and Arco, with its no credit card policy and claim as the lowest price fuel out West?

Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Posted: May 4th, 2018, 11:35 am
by storewanderer
jamcool wrote: May 4th, 2018, 7:57 am Apparently they are going to brand all company owned sites Speedway, what happens to the Giant sites that sell major brand fuel (Shell, Conoco,76)? And what about am/pm and Arco, with its no credit card policy and claim as the lowest price fuel out West?
I am going to be curious if/how they can get out of the various major fuel brand agreements that Tesoro has gotten involved in. Tesoro as recently as this past quarter in California has been converting unbranded former Flyers stations to the Mobil or Exxon brands.

I think they make their plans pretty clear:
http://www.cspdailynews.com/mergers-acq ... or-s-sites

“The way they [Andeavor] go to market today is with many different brands,” he said. “We’re going to bring in the Speedway brand, just like we turned over the Hess stores here in the East, and we’ll take the Speedway brand to all of those company-owned and company-operated stores. So we’ll have about 4,000 Speedway stores across the country.”

My suspicion is going foward the two brands will be Arco and Marathon for dealer sites and Speedway for corporate owned sites. Arcos can accept credit cards if they want. It is really the California Arcos that are holding very firm on the "no credit card" policy. In Arizona, they almost all accept credit cards now, and some in Las Vegas accept them too (mostly near the strip). In Washington they've been accepting credit cards for a while and when I was in Oregon last summer the two remaining Arcos I came across also both accepted credit cards.

Tesoro at one time was trying to develop its own brand and c-store concept (called 2GO) and I think when that didn't work out is when they decided to literally get in bed with Shell and ExxonMobil and just use those brands. The Arco brand which they do own has limitations due to its discount nature and the credit card issue.

Shell and ExxonMobil stand to lose a lot of stations if this rebranding to Speedway goes forward. Tesoro also has a lot of sites tied up in weird "multi site operator" arrangements where the sites are company OWNED, but not company operated. They have been terminating those agreements actively in recent months making the sites company operated again...

Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Posted: May 4th, 2018, 12:18 pm
by jamcool
The complication with Arco and am/pm out West is that Andeavor owns the ARCO brand and licenses it to BP to use on its company owned stations in NorCal and the PNW. BP owns the am/pm brand and licenses it to Andeavor to use in SoCal/NV/AZ

Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Posted: May 4th, 2018, 12:28 pm
by storewanderer
jamcool wrote: May 4th, 2018, 12:18 pm The complication with Arco and am/pm out West is that Andeavor owns the ARCO brand and licenses it to BP to use on its company owned stations in NorCal and the PNW. BP owns the am/pm brand and licenses it to Andeavor to use in SoCal/NV/AZ
All of the Arcos connected with BP are dealer operated sites. BP (and Shell, and ExxonMobil) do not have any company operated stations in the US anymore. I'm not sure if BP has any real estate left, either. I think Shell still has significant real estate holdings on US Gas Stations, but all are on the "multi site operator" program that Tesoro uses. Tesoro actually modeled their program after Shell.

It is a little strange for the Arco am/pm sites in the Tesoro territory (NV, AZ, Merced and south in CA). At this point they have franchise agreements with BP for am/pm and with Tesoro for Arco.

Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Posted: May 20th, 2018, 9:01 am
by a42887
http://www.cspdailynews.com/mergers-acq ... or-s-sites
UPDATE: In a interview with Fox Business Network (FBN) on May 3, Heminger was even more emphatic: "We are going to turn [Andeavor's retail outlets] into Speedway and have one system across the U.S.," he said.

“We will now take Speedway coast to coast, we’ll take the Marathon brand coast to coast,” Heminger also said in an interview with radio station WJR-760 AM. “We will more than likely keep Arco; it’s a very strong brand on the West Coast. We will keep Arco on the West Coast down into Mexico, but I would expect that we will take the Marathon brand. They have about 2,800 branded stations, I would say at least 2,300 of those or so will become Marathon brand and then we'll keep the Arco brand where it is the strongest.”

Re: Marathon to acquire Andeavor (Tesoro)

Posted: May 20th, 2018, 9:12 pm
by storewanderer
a42887 wrote: May 20th, 2018, 9:01 am http://www.cspdailynews.com/mergers-acq ... or-s-sites
UPDATE: In a interview with Fox Business Network (FBN) on May 3, Heminger was even more emphatic: "We are going to turn [Andeavor's retail outlets] into Speedway and have one system across the U.S.," he said.

“We will now take Speedway coast to coast, we’ll take the Marathon brand coast to coast,” Heminger also said in an interview with radio station WJR-760 AM. “We will more than likely keep Arco; it’s a very strong brand on the West Coast. We will keep Arco on the West Coast down into Mexico, but I would expect that we will take the Marathon brand. They have about 2,800 branded stations, I would say at least 2,300 of those or so will become Marathon brand and then we'll keep the Arco brand where it is the strongest.”
Well that settles that...

Arco will be kept because the station operators who have trained customers on "no credit cards" will revolt against eliminating it.

You have to hand it to Arco. That brand would have been killed by BP, had it not been for the "no credit card" rule they have taught customers to accept and as a result made operating Arco Stations very attractive for many operators. Arco has truly a unique business model particularly in Southern California where they have held firm on "no credit cards." Arcos in Arizona and Las Vegas (Tesoro sites) are accepting Credit Cards in scattered locations in some cases directly at the posted price on the signs, while many BP-controlled Arcos in Seattle accept Credit Cards but with a split cash price/credit price format.