BP Amoco Enters New Branded Jobber Contract

CHICAGO — BP Products North America Inc. has entered into a branded jobber contract with Blue Earth Resources Inc., a U.S. fuel marketer, to resell its fuel and deliver BP Amoco's merchant services to branded retail convenience stores and fuel stations throughout the United States.

Blue Earth will receive revenue from fuel sales, merchant services and fuel transportation.

"BP Amoco's unsurpassed brand awareness and support features provide compelling reasons for operators to switch their brand and committed fuel supply to BP or Amoco," said Scott M. Boruff, CEO of Blue Earth. "The high-value package offered by BP to retailers indicates their aggressive convenience stores growth objectives and we look forward to selling it in the U.S., beginning in the south."

With more than 2.7 million consumer visits a day and 1 billion point-of-sale ads viewed per year, BP Amoco has invested millions of dollars into establishing a top-tier brand of fuel quality, reliability and brand awareness, stated Blue Earth.

BP Amoco has invested into helping sites upgrade their image and has maintained a coordinated marketing effort using TV, internet, radio, out-of-home, on-site and digital advertising to drive consumers to sites so operators can focus on running their business, the fuel marketer added.

As Convenience Store News reported, Blue Earth Resources first announced in March the launch of a new fuel brand in March to serve independent convenience store operators in the southeastern United States.

The fuel marketer conducted the first site surveys for BluePetro, with branding agreements to follow. Blue Earth expects the first stores will come online by the end of May.

According to the company, features for the operators include a complete branding package: LED price sign, canopy wrap, pump decals, paint refresh, safe and secure point-of-sale processing and 10-year fuel supply contract through Blue Earth Resources.

The new fuel brand comes at a time when motorists have seen record prices at the pump with no signs of a slowdown. The national average for a regular gallon of gas reached $4.59 per gallon on May 23, with all 50 states averaging more than $4 per gallon at the pump, stated AAA. The national average of $4.59 is 47 cents more than a month ago, and $1.56 more than a year ago.

Chicago-based BP's U.S. retail presence spans 7,300 sites in 35 states, including BP, ARCO/ampm, Amoco and Thorntons. BP has different retail models across the U.S., ranging from company-owned retail stores, strategic partnerships, brand licensing, wholesale, business-to-business, dealer-owned and franchise-owned.

Knoxville, Tenn.-based Blue Earth Resources Inc. is a fuel marketer which provides custom-designed solutions to refined fuel procurement supply issues and logistics challenges faced by fuel customers in the United States.

Blue Earth offers a customized composite of risk management, computation of industry, financial, and geo-political information assists each customer in making real-time market decisions that reduce cost and prevent business interruption. Its risk management reporting incorporates specific risk tolerance assessments of each customer and includes purchase and sales contract review, and will include bulk inventory management (shipping, terminaling and hedging), retail margin protection, and other custom reporting. 

Blue Earth customers include retailers, jobbers, commercial, industrial, power plants, municipalities, government, agricultural and manufacturers.