C.N. Brown Celebrates CITGO Rebrandings

SOUTH PARIS, Maine -- CITGO fuel distributor C.N. Brown Co. is giving away more than $1,000 a day in CITGO gift cards valid for fuel and convenience store purchases at its 43 Big Apple stores and other participating locations across Maine and New Hampshire. The contest is being held in celebration of the company's 20-year partnership with CITGO and the rebranding of several Big Apple and select independent locations to CITGO over the past several months.

As CSNews Online reported in February, C.N. Brown decided to convert 42 of its locally owned gas stations from the Mobil fuel brand to the CITGO brand. At the time, the company already owned or serviced more than 30 CITGO locations in the Northeast. C.N. Brown said it chose to expand the partnership for several reasons -- particularly, the oil company's crude supply sources and its refining capacity. Both companies also share New England roots.

"We are so excited about the new design of our Big Apple stores and wanted to get our customers to come in and take a look," said Jinger Duryea, president of C.N. Brown. "Giving away CITGO gift cards made perfect sense. In addition, we still know families that are recovering from the flooding and unprecedented storms earlier this year, so we wanted to offer some relief by providing a chance to win fuel and convenience store items."

C.N. Brown and CITGO will give away 10 $100 "instant win" gift card prizes every day through Oct. 18, plus a total of 10 $500 second-chance prizes. Already there have been 17,215 entries and 214 winners across six states.

"We commend C.N. Brown for its latest effort to give back to the community," said Gustavo Velasquez, vice president of supply and marketing for CITGO Petroleum Corp. "It is this type of involvement and focus on customers that has made C.N. Brown and Big Apple such powerful brands for more than 60 years. We are proud to partner with them."