SeaOil to open 13 more stations in Cebu in 2011

CEBU, Philippines - Independent fuel company, SeaOil Philippines Inc., is going to open 13 stations in Cebu before the year ends, as part of its expansion plan for the country, owing to the good prospects for fuel retail business in the country.

In a press conference, SeaOil president and chief executive officer (CEO) Glenn Yu said that Cebu is one of the company’s top growth drivers. In fact, the City government awarded the company as number one importer with a total P560 million revenues contributed to the government’s buffer in a recent awarding event.

At present, there are four SeaOil gasoline stations in Cebu. The fourth one, which was opened few days back located in Plaridel, Mandaue City is the company’s 200th gasoline station in the Philippines, since its opening in 1997.

In its bid to become the “Jollibee” in the fuel retail industry, Yu said the company has allocated at least P1 billion capital expenditure for this year, to penetrate more areas in the Philippines that haven’t been served.

At an average, the company spends P10 million per station. Yu said the company is expanding via an attractive franchise model.

Yu also bared plans that the company will put up 60 new stations in 2012, as outlined in the three-year SeaOil Expansion Program.

“SeaOil will be adding more stations in the Visayas and Mindanao with 30 stations next year to further enhance the reach of our products and services nationwide,” he said.

Through the company’s franchise program, which is considered as one of the most flexible in the oil industry, a dealer can develop a station from the ground up or opt to franchise an existing station with proven revenue streams.

The Visayas’ operations contributed about 10 percent of the company’s business, with revenue generated at average gross revenue of P1.5 billion a year.

Last year, the company posted a gross revenue of P11.5 billion. Yu said with its active expansion this year, SeaOil targets to hit P15 billion to P16 billion gross revenue this year.

SeaOil Group of Companies was founded in 1978. It was initially engaged in offering storage facilities for petroleum and petrochemical-based products. A few years later, SeaOil expanded its operations by creating a niche in the wholesale petroleum market.

A Filipino-owned company, SeaOil is known as a pioneer in promoting biofuels in the Philippines. It was the first company to sell E10 gasoline, a 10 percent ethanol-blended gasoline. It has developed and promoted E10 since August 2005, a year before the Biofuels Act of 2006 was signed into law. (FREEMAN)