Bye Bye Mobil...??

[GTRMagic]

And what will happen to the support of WP and co??

Here

[Axeman444]

it only mentions 302 servos. surely there is more to that in AU? Therefore Mobil as such is not in effect gone?

I like it how he says this will enable Caltex to go up against the retail leaders Woolies, Coles and BP. Wasn't it Woolies they sold out to to run their shop fronts for them?

[GTRMagic]

774 according to Here

Presumably the 302 are the Mobil company owned sites...

[GTRMagic]

Here

Mobil has been winding down activities in Australia for some time...

[Forda]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

And what will happen to the support of WP and co??

Here

The question is: are Mobil-sponsored racing teams funded by Mobil retail or by other Mobil operations?

It might be more likely sponsorship will continue through Mobil lubricants, as it seemingly has been for the last 10 years or so.

Mobil 1 and other lubricant products will undoubtedly still have distribution channels when the Mobil owned retail sites disappear.

[touring fan01]

Originally Posted by Forda

The question is: are Mobil-sponsored racing teams funded by Mobil retail or by other Mobil operations?

It might be more likely sponsorship will continue through Mobil lubricants, as it seemingly has been for the last 10 years or so.

Mobil 1 and other lubricant products will undoubtedly still have distribution channels when the Mobil owned retail sites disappear.

Its exactly what happened in the UK. Mobil got rid of their servo's and just concentrate their (retail) activities on oil, which is more profitable.

So the Mobil1 branding won't disappear from race cars. Its the only product they need to promote.

[Crash Test]

What lubricants come standard from the factory in Holdens these days??

[Amaroo Park]

Holden pakage oil

[RedZedMikey]

Don't you just love the quality of journalism these days?

#1 - ABC News: "... and says it will try to hold on to as many of Mobil's 1,700 employees as possible."
#2 - SMH: "... Caltex said it is buying the 302 Mobil service station sites as a going concern and expects to employ an extra 1,700 workers."

Essentially the same issue taken from 2 different links posted above. Yet the intial interpretations could be -
From the ABC: Some of the 1700 could lose their jobs.
From the SMH: Hey, 1700 extra jobs created!
Obviously the ABC provides the more correct interpretation.

And 1 of my 2 local Mobil options became a Caltex 3 or 4 years ago.

[Senna05]

Mobil have been reducing their footprint as a retailer for several years. Many a Mobile station became a United or a Metro (or some even a Caltex/Woolworths).

This is interesting on a few fronts -

*Woolies became disapointed with the Caltex arrangement last year and tried to get out of the agreement, with a plan to import fuel from elsewhere...

*MANY Caltex franchisee's became annoyed with the Woolies arrangement with constant stifling of the arrangements... Such as the repayment of the 4c discount being late on many occasions, a slow set up of the Wish Gift Card system losing them customers, and more often than not (partiularly in the Metro regions) preferential treatment going to the Calstores company owned StarMarts in terms of fuel delivery.

*Constant confusion between Caltex StarMarts Franchises, Woolies franchises and Calstores/Woolworths owned sites and the functions of all.

As an ex-Calstores employee, let me say that the arrangement probably went skewiff when Woolworths only wanted key selected sites that were of high yield. It created huge tensions between the two types of stores, and alot of confusion amongst customers.

It sounds like Caltex are setting up for short term competition with themselves as a fuel retailer and a long term arrangement against Woolworths ran, supplied and franchised service stations.

Back to the real story - As has been said, the sponsorship focus on HRT shifted from Mobil to Mobil 1 around 1998 or 1999. A small shift on the visual side, but a large one on the funding side.

[thunderbolt]

bega has 3 Caltex servicestations
1 was ampol it changed about 3 years ago
and mobil changed 6 month ago

[johnh875]

Senna I think there have been similar issues on the Shell side of the fence too, a lot of franchisees have jumped ship. Hopefully this is more than a short term thing, otherwise we will end up with an even higher concentration of power/market share in the hands of Coles & Woolies - a real concern. Never mind, we have the ACCC to look after things don't we... D'oh!

[Amaroo Park]

It would greatly suprice me that this goes through without a lot of questions being asked. The ACCC are still unhappy over Caltex's takeover of the only Australian Owned oil company in Ampol.

[billy bigtime]

This may be of interest.

http://www.caltex.com.au/about_his.asp

[Senna05]

The biggest difference between Shell and Caltex was that Shell was able to sell their entire shopfronts to Coles. If a site owner was paying royalties to Shell and didnt want to continue to operate as a Coles Express, they could change.

Woolies only got a handfull (well, more than that, you get the idea) of sites. And on top of that, they had their own sites, that were branded (and still are) differently - Making a scenario where you have -

*Ampols that have not renewed their agreement, meaning they are still Ampols
*Caltex Shops - smaller sites
*Caltex Star Shops - medium sites
*Caltex Star Marts - larger sites
*Caltex Woolworths - a site either owned by Woolies or Caltex that is primarily run under a Caltex agreement
*Woolworths Caltex - A site run by woolies that sells Caltex petrol

What a quagmire of choice for a franchisee!

At the end of the day, there are some sits that are owned by the oil company, leased to a franchisee or ran by the company, and you wont see these re-brand unless there is a buy out. The sites you mention that changed are owned by the franchisee, and often swap and change to suit a new royalty agreement.

As for the ACCC, if Mobil can prove the sites were going to be shut down sooner or later, they will not disaprove of the sale if it means jobs in this climate. What we can hope for, is that Caltex lease the site to a competitive franchisee who will buck against recomended retail selling price.

[banksie]

Mobil will continue to supply fuel to all Victorian and SA Caltex servos, Caltex will continue to supply fuel to Mobil servos in NSW, ACT and QLD.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by banksie

Mobil will continue to supply fuel to all Victorian and SA Caltex servos, Caltex will continue to supply fuel to Mobil servos in NSW, ACT and QLD.

Until that refinery too is onsold.

[Just Do It!]

Originally Posted by Amaroo Park

It would greatly suprice me that this goes through without a lot of questions being asked. The ACCC are still unhappy over Caltex's takeover of the only Australian Owned oil company in Ampol.

Don't forget Gull. They are Aussie owned, and privately so

[Forda]

Caltex's takeover of 302 Mobil service stations denied by ACCC

[PVDA]

Well the telco I work for has just binned all the Mobil fuel cards in the fleet in favour of Caltex.

[db120176]

Originally Posted by RedZedMikey

#1 - ABC News: "... and says it will try to hold on to as many of Mobil's 1,700 employees as possible."
#2 - SMH: "... Caltex said it is buying the 302 Mobil service station sites as a going concern and expects to employ an extra 1,700 workers."

Essentially the same issue taken from 2 different links posted above. Yet the intial interpretations could be -
From the ABC: Some of the 1700 could lose their jobs.
From the SMH: Hey, 1700 extra jobs created!
Obviously the ABC provides the more correct interpretation.

What the SMH says is true, as is the ABC. With the purchase, Caltex will initially employee 1,700 people they didn't before the purchase. How many of these people keep their jobs after consolidation remains to be seen.

[Forda]

Bye Bye Shell & BP as well?

BP and Shell are said to be likely to exit their own local downstream operations within a few years.

Sounds like the Castrol-type business model is the way to go?

[GTRMagic]

Caltex to close oil plant

Is this where they make Havoline? If so.. why are they coming back to V8Supercar with 888?

[gts300]

With apologies to those whose jobs are on the line (I've been there, done that.)

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Caltex to close oil plant

...

A DECISION by Caltex to shut part of the Kurnell oil refinery will cost up to 100 jobs,

...

It said the closure would cost $93 million in redundancy and other payments.

...

$93M in Redundancy & other payments.

100 Jobs.

Either I want a job there or the 'other payments' are the real killer on the plant.

[peckstar]

would that not include site rehabilitation?

in Gippsland Victoria the Mobils are all currently being re-branded as Caltex

they are all owned by a local private company and have made the decision to re-brand