Chevron putting up 30 new Caltex stations

MANILA, Philippines – Chevron Philippines Inc. (CPI) is putting up over 30 new retail stations in existing and new growth areas this year, as it launched a new gasoline product to maintain its position among the top three oil players in the country.

The oil firm will add 32 new service stations across the country, adding to around 700 existing retail stations, CPI country manager Peter Morris said in an interview during the launch of Caltex’s new fuel product.

“That’s right across the country, evenly spread across the country, a few here in Metro Manila, there’s certainly quite a few in growth areas like Mindanao and provincial areas in the Visayas,” he said, noting about 25 percent of the new branches will be located in Mindanao.

The expansion will mostly be through partnering with local business partners while CPI will provide the Caltex branding and fuel supply. This is to ensure the Caltex brand will be in the right locations, Morris said.

“We provide the branding aspects and some other investments for the service station…It’s a big part of what we do, (which) is to provide growth businesses and work with business partners and improve their livelihood and of the local communities because those business partners are key members of those communities,” the CPI official said.

Currently, CPI is third biggest oil player in the country, cornering about 15 percent in market share, despite the entry of new players.

Apart from expansion of its retail network, the global oil player is also continuously innovating its fuel products to maintain its market share, Morris said.

The country has launched the new Techron with Clean and Glide Technology across all gasoline grades, which will be available in Caltex service stations starting July 1. It also unveiled a new gasoline variant called Caltex Platinum with Techron, replacing the Gold variant.

“We welcome new competitors but we also compete very strongly. That’s why the Caltex brand is continually innovating. People can go on try other brands, but they can always come back to Caltex for the highest quality fuel, fuel they can trust, and fuel that’s going to provide reliability for their vehicle,” Morris said.

The CPI country manager said these planned retail stations and new fuel products will be serviced by CPI’s five existing oil depots and eight depots in joint cooperation with Shell.

“We’ve got a pretty robust and efficient supply chain. We may be making some investments in additional tankers in existing facilities, additional capacities on import awards,” he said.