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An independent oil company announced that it will open five more stations worth at least P120 million in Cebu this year.
Total Philippines Corporation president and managing director Ernst Wanten made the announcement on the last day of the PetrolWorld Forum held on March 9-12 at the Shangri-La Mactan Island Resort and Spa.
The company's new investment comes on the heels of its spending of $70 million or about P3.3 billion for the construction of a dedicated fuel depot in barangay Opao, Mandaue City. The depot has a capacity of 2 million liters.
According to Wanten, Total's first three new outlets will be company-owned and dealer-operated, just like their first station along Plaridel Street, Mandaue City that opened in December last year.
?We will be building the station and just have the dealers [sic] come in and manage the station,? Wanten said. He pointed out that this arrangement proved workable with Cebuano businessmen. All they needed to do in addition to hiring personnel was buy Total's products for sale at their stations.
?They will just for example pay us rent for the station,? Wanten added.
The five stations will have just about the same area and capacity as the first outlet, Wanten explained.
?The existing station has four island pumps with five underground tanks, each with 16,000 liters capacity,? said Wanten. ?Aside from that, we also have a convenience store, Bonjour, and a cafe, Cafe Bonjour that offers a wide selection of quality snacks and sundries.?
Wanten, however, said that every partnership they have with businessmen is unique. How much fixed investment really needs remains to be seen.
For now, he gave the assurance that Total is prepared to expand its Opao, Mandaue depot in the event that Cebu's demand for their fuel products grows.
Total, Wanten revealed, has acquired MT Camille, a double-hulled, 3,651-deadweight-ton-capacity vessel ?to transport our products to all of our depot stations nationwide including Cebu.?
Total's president shared that in Luzon, Total (Philippines) Corporation holds 6 to 7 percent of the total market share. In Panay Island, they rank third behind Shell and Petron. This means that Total is already competing with the so-called ?Big Three? oil companies ? Shell, Petron, and Caltex.
