CALTEX to buy MOBIL service stations

[philstoj]

Just heard to the tv that CALTEX is to buy out most of MOBILS service stations and to increase their market share to rival the big boys, COLES and WOOLWORTHS, so i wonder what will happen if this goes ahead?.

Heres an article about it, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...27/2581916.htm

[Mr Hardware]

yeah this'll be bad-ish. i feel sorry for mobil, used to be one of the 'big four' (BP, Shell, Caltex and Mobil) now Shell is in bed with Coles and Caltex is dating Woolworths, BP can hold its own simply due to the fact that it holds so many fleet accounts, has Ultimate, and has a fuel guarantee, and this puts Mobil with no advantages over just a dirty old Matilda or Freedom or Liberty or United or an Independant. I have had a feeling for a long time that they were going to go down the dunny, right when the Intergalactic Mobil at Virginia closed.

[Green X]

Originally Posted by Mr Hardware

yeah this'll be bad-ish. i feel sorry for mobil, used to be one of the 'big four' (BP, Shell, Caltex and Mobil)

Feel sorry for mobil?? They are hardly being bulled out by Caltex, ExxonMobil could swallow up Caltex for lunch if they wanted to!

[Joe5619]

You have said Caltex wants to rival the big boys in Coles & WoolWoorths. I'm confused, Caltex stations are Woolwoorthss, so how can the by a rival to itself?

[philstoj]

Originally Posted by Joe5619

You have said Caltex wants to rival the big boys in Coles & WoolWoorths. I'm confused, Caltex stations are Woolwoorthss, so how can the by a rival to itself?

Woolworths buys petrol from Caltex, and they do run independantly and also they share/franchise stations to each other.

[GS608]

Originally Posted by philstoj

Woolworths buys petrol from Caltex, and they do run independantly and also they share/franchise stations to each other.

Not all Caltex stations accept woolies dockets either.

Its a bloody shame that is, i wonder why that quix thing never took off?
swip ya card at the bowser and fill er up and just drive off..no waiting in lines.

[uranium_death]

Originally Posted by XR-CHIEF

Not all Caltex stations accept woolies dockets either.

That is because ONLY Caltex stores owned by Caltex are linked with Safeway.
Caltex stations that are 'franchised' are not allowed to accept the fuel offer.
Many of these franchise owners were unhappy at the time.

I will say that I am bemused by people's behaviour with saving money at the bowser.
In 1998, Petrol was 60 cents a litre or thereabouts at its lowest. Nobody cared about saving $1.20 on petrol then (only 2 cents a litre saving then).
Now with the media focus it has had, people will line up for 15 minutes to save a couple of dollars.
Whether petrol costs 10 cents or 100 dollars a litre, you are still saving the same amount.
Then you have those clowns who will spend an extra five dollars to save an extra four cents a litre.

I avoid all that crap by going to my franchised Caltex. Does the job.
No lines at all. While everybody is fighting for the last drop of petrol at Safeway, Caltex's stock is high, and I don't have to wait.

Brilliant.

[Burnout]

Originally Posted by uranium_death

That is because ONLY Caltex stores owned by Caltex are linked with Safeway.
Caltex stations that are 'franchised' are not allowed to accept the fuel offer.
Many of these franchise owners were unhappy at the time.

I will say that I am bemused by people's behaviour with saving money at the bowser.
In 1998, Petrol was 60 cents a litre or thereabouts at its lowest. Nobody cared about saving $1.20 on petrol then (only 2 cents a litre saving then).
Now with the media focus it has had, people will line up for 15 minutes to save a couple of dollars.
Whether petrol costs 10 cents or 100 dollars a litre, you are still saving the same amount.
Then you have those clowns who will spend an extra five dollars to save an extra four cents a litre.

I avoid all that crap by going to my franchised Caltex. Does the job.
No lines at all. While everybody is fighting for the last drop of petrol at Safeway, Caltex's stock is high, and I don't have to wait.

Brilliant.

Very true - It's funny how people will wait for ages outside one of the servos tied to Wollies or Coles to save $1 on a tank of fuel, when just down the road is a servo with empty lanes.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by uranium_death

T
I will say that I am bemused by people's behaviour with saving money at the bowser.
In 1998, Petrol was 60 cents a litre or thereabouts at its lowest. Nobody cared about saving $1.20 on petrol then (only 2 cents a litre saving then).
Now with the media focus it has had, people will line up for 15 minutes to save a couple of dollars.
Whether petrol costs 10 cents or 100 dollars a litre, you are still saving the same amount.
Then you have those clowns who will spend an extra five dollars to save an extra four cents a litre.



Brilliant.

it depends on the size of the tank. my gas tank is 116L. thats $5 on a 4c voucher but often i have 8c or higher offers. i often spend the extra in store as well. an $8.50 magazine then virtually becomes free. i don't do it to save money, just get some free magazines or something with my fuel.

i don't mean to turn this into one of these arguements though. on a normal size tank i totally agree.

[dom_105]

Originally Posted by uranium_death

That is because ONLY Caltex stores owned by Caltex are linked with Safeway.
Caltex stations that are 'franchised' are not allowed to accept the fuel offer.
Many of these franchise owners were unhappy at the time.

I thought that Caltex/Woolworths sites were owned and controlled by Woolworths?

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by XR-CHIEF

Not all Caltex stations accept woolies dockets either.

Its a bloody shame that is, i wonder why that quix thing never took off?
swip ya card at the bowser and fill er up and just drive off..no waiting in lines.

At least from my perspective, I thought they were a great idea until the first one that didn't dispense a docket. Never used another one after that.

[MAV50L]

Yeah its happening all right.
My missus was given the news today. She works for Mobil and is waiting to find out if she will continue to stay on or be made redundant.

[screaminB]

Originally Posted by MAV50L

Yeah its happening all right.
My missus was given the news today. She works for Mobil and is waiting to find out if she will continue to stay on or be made redundant.

I wouldn't worry just yet .The whole matter has to go before the ACCC.Reports are saying that caltex will be the supplier of 44% of all fuels.Maybe the ACCC won't let that happen ,the ramifications would really be dier for the poor old consumer.And if that does happen there is even talk of losing one of the refinerys.

[motorcycles4eva]

interesting article....i filled a form into the caltex franchise only a couple of days ago... don't have a reply yet but interesting to see what they say..

[Buzz Box]

From the sounds of it the only obstacle to this would be politics (IE. ACCC) because as they stated petrol and pricing is such a hot topic and 1 company having a 44% market share........

[Yaw]

It's been widley know for years Mobil are trying to exit australia. It has been over 5 years since I worked in servo's, I did a lot of work for sevral caltex sites and other scattered ones over an 8 year period. The service station magazine were talikng about this back then. I have actually at one stage of those 8 years worked for a Mobil back then called an MSF (multi site francise)
And can tell any Mobil employee Caltex are far better to work for, when a maitance issue presents itself, Caltex get right on to it. Mobil simple issues dragged on for months, even little things like a broken toilet roll holder would take Mobil months to fix.

[dom_105]

Yeah, got the news today.

I think the console operators and store managers are going to be ok, unless Caltex start closing a massive number of stores.

Once you start getting up the line some cuts will probably be made. I'm sure there would be plenty of guys down at head office a bit nervous at the moment.

Interesting couple of months coming up.

And can tell any Mobil employee Caltex are far better to work for, when a maitance issue presents itself, Caltex get right on to it. Mobil simple issues dragged on for months, even little things like a broken toilet roll holder would take Mobil months to fix.

That's for sure. I've heard some horror stories, stores on manual vouchers for weeks at a time at one place. That POS is a relic from the 80's

[Jason[98.EL]]

just found this one

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...27/2582629.htm

Caltex's planned Mobil deal under fire
By Stephen Long

Posted Wed May 27, 2009 8:35pm AEST
Updated Wed May 27, 2009 9:08pm AEST


Former ACCC head Allan Fels has questioned whether the Mobil sale could reduce competiton in the market. (ABC News)

Related Story: Caltex makes $300m grab for Mobil servos A former head of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has joined the growing scepticism over Caltex's claim its planned acquisition of Mobil petrol stations will boost competition.

The big refiner Mobil has agreed to sell more than 300 service stations to its rival Caltex.

Including Woolworths-Caltex outlets, the deal would give Caltex almost half of the total retail market.

Former ACCC head Allan Fels has questioned whether the move could be one step too far in reducing competition in the petrol retail market.

"Caltex will be supplying Woolworths which has 22 per cent and then it supplies itself, which will go to 22 per cent, so that's 44 per cent of the market really, hugely boosts the power of Caltex in the market," he said.

But Caltex boss Des King says the purchase will allow the company to compete with what he calls the dominant retailers - Woolworths, Coles and BP.

The ACCC is examining the deal and Mr Fels says the regulatory body should take a good, hard look.

"We used to have nine oil companies once plus many independents and imports plus a bit later Coles and Woolworths operating independently," he said.

"Now this will take us down to three big oil companies, two of whom are closely linked with Coles and Woolworths plus some independents plus very shrinking independent imports."

The ACCC has given the go ahead to all of the previous mergers.


Consumer concerns

Caltex's claims do not wash with some high-profile politicians and South Australian Independent Nick Xenophon says the sale is bad news.

"To say that they are not a big player is a little cute," he said.

"This will mean less diversity in the market place. It is not good news for consumers."

Queensland Coalition Senator Barnaby Joyce says consumers will be exploited by the move.

"It's going to reduce competition. This is ridiculous. We keep on centralising back our market place, we keep losing an opportunity for the Australian family to go into the business," he said.

"We keep losing competition in the market place. The consumers will get exploited."

Senator Joyce says he does not believe the move will increase competition with Coles and Woolies petrol outlets.

"No one centralises a market place so that they can give the consumer a better deal," he said.

"They get control of the market place so they can exploit the consumer and force prices up."

The Australian Automobile Association, the peak body for state and territory motoring groups, is also concerned.

Executive director Mike Harris says it will give companies more capacity to influence prices.

"If you've got a market place that has four major players, which is what we had or have at the present time, if you take one of those players out and you leave only three, some if not all of those remaining players will have larger market share and therefore greater capacity to influence price," he said.

Mr Harris says says he will put his faith in the ACCC's inquiry, but say he remains sceptical.

"Like every motorist in the country who queues up to buy petrol, I remain sceptical about the price that I'm paying," he said.

"Nobody, including the ACCC, has yet been able to convince either me or the vast majority of the motoring public that they are paying at any given point in time a far price for a litre of petrol."

[barbarian]

Hate to be in a Caltex franchise business, poor bastards don't make a cent off petrol.. all profit comes from the store

[Road_Warrior]

Awesome. An even greater monopoly on the market. /sarcasm

People seem to have forgotten Caltex's takeover of Ampol in 1995...Ampol was a true blue Aussie brand, Caltex assured the ACCC that the move wouldnt reduce competition and that it would make its terminals available to an independent and that the Ampol brand would survive. Pigs ****. How many Ampol branded servos do you see these days? Thought so. They'll do the same with Mobil sites as they did with Ampol 15 years ago.

Originally Posted by barbarian

Hate to be in a Caltex franchise business, poor bastards don't make a cent off petrol.. all profit comes from the store

I think you'll find that many, of not most of the convenience store-servos are company operated. They are in Wait Awhile anyway.

[Yaw]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Awesome. An even greater monopoly on the market. /sarcasm

People seem to have forgotten Caltex's takeover of Ampol in 1995...Ampol was a true blue Aussie brand, Caltex assured the ACCC that the move wouldnt reduce competition and that it would make its terminals available to an independent and that the Ampol brand would survive. Pigs ****. How many Ampol branded servos do you see these days? Thought so. They'll do the same with Mobil sites as they did with Ampol 15 years ago.



I think you'll find that many, of not most of the convenience store-servos are company operated. They are in Wait Awhile anyway.

I was working at Caltex during the Caltex Ampol merger.
The the CEO of Ampol became the CEO of Caltex, Dr Ian Blackburn- who I believe is now one of the Suncorp Executives.
Anyway, Dr Ian Blackburn having come from Ampol turned every site down the Gold Coast that was Caltex to Ampol, they even advertised an Ampol every 5 minutes of driving down the coast. It was after a visit from one of the Chevron Execes (Caltex is a joint venture of Chevron and Texaco hench Caltex) that Dr Ian Blackburn got a massive rap over the knuckes because They should have been rebranded as Caltex as they got a very quick revamp after that visit.

[Mr Hardware]

I can think of 1 AMPOL within 20 kays. That's it though. All the other Ampol's i used to know have turned into Freedom's or United's.

[Paxton]

Originally Posted by Mr Hardware

I can think of 1 AMPOL within 20 kays. That's it though. All the other Ampol's i used to know have turned into Freedom's or United's.

I know of a couple, one in Wollongong, and a couple south of Sydney.

Most of the franchised Caltex stores I know of have a mechanics in them as well, that way, they make money on the mechanics, and the petrol brings in the business.

[Bud Bud]

Well our Mobil refinery at Port Stanvac has been in mothballs for a few years now and there ain’t any plans too
a) re-open
b) clean up and leave
Anytime soon! Not even last year's high margins were enough for them to consider re-opening the refinery.

Also I have noticed that Mobil in Adelaide has been the most active oil company in closing down sites in recent years as well, followed by Shell. There used to be two on Rowells Road at Lockleys and Findon and two that dominated Denancourt for decades just off the top of my head. BP on the other hand has been very busy opening new stores just as quickly including the new BP on the old Mobil Denancourt site.

Bring back Golden Fleece!

[eb2fairmont]

Ampol was rebranded caltex in metropolitan areas.

[Fev]

Yeah the ampol that used to be near my place is now a caltex - changed like 5 or 6 years ago.. That place had the best thickshakes - They converted a slushie machine into thickshakes and i miss em lol

[last fairlane]

What about when Caltex took over Golden Fleece in the eighties
also what about Neptune taken over by Shell in the sixties
What ever happened to the Neptune racing team
Jim Mckown in his Cortina Norm Beechey in his Mustang
and Peter Manton in his Mini
and what ever happened to Amoco
and ACTU Solo that was Bob Hawkes love child way before he became PM and kangaroo petrol
Its just that I grew up in the sixties that I know these things
thanks John

[Yaw]

Originally Posted by last fairlane

What about when Caltex took over Golden Fleece in the eighties
also what about Neptune taken over by Shell in the sixties
What ever happened to the Neptune racing team
Jim Mckown in his Cortina Norm Beechey in his Mustang
and Peter Manton in his Mini
and what ever happened to Amoco
and ACTU Solo that was Bob Hawkes love child way before he became PM and kangaroo petrol
Its just that I grew up in the sixties that I know these things
thanks John

AMACO was taken over by BP
and Esso was taken over by Mobil

[Bud Bud]

Originally Posted by last fairlane

also what about Neptune taken over by Shell in the sixties

and what ever happened to Amoco

Off topic I know but I still remember the Neptune statue at Darlington in Adelaide's south. I cannot remember the actual servo being there but the statue was left behind for years after for some reason. He used to stand roughly where McDonalds is now if I remember rightly.

Amoco had the best ad in the 70's called something like "Amoco in your machine", which was written by the MOJO advertising agency. Incidentally they were also responsible for many other great advertising campaigns including C'mon Aussie C'mon amongst others back then as well.

[egosfast]

Didn't Amoco run the "Put a tiger in your tank" promo back in the 60's ?