Ultramar
Ultramar is an Eastern Canadian gas and home fuel retailer, with its head office located in Montreal, Quebec. Ultramar operates gas stations and home fuel delivery in Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. It also operates ValuMax, a cashback program for fuel purchases.
 | |
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Oil refining and marketing |
| Founded | 1961 |
| Headquarters | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
Area served | Eastern Canada |
Key people | Luka Pejanovic (CEO) |
| Parent | Ultramar plc (1961–1991) Lasmo (1991–1992) Valero Energy (2001–2013) CST Brands (2013–2016) Parkland Fuel (2016–present) |
| Website | www |
History
Ultramar plc established operations in Canada in 1961. Retail stations were originally branded "Golden Eagle".[1] Its refinery in Lévis, Quebec was built ten years later.[1]
From 1979 to 1996, Ultramar grew by acquiring stations from several other companies, including Canadian fuel marketers Texaco Canada, Gulf Canada, Sergaz, Sunoco and Spur.[1]
In 1981, Ultramar acquired Hanford, California-based Beacon Oil Company. It retained the name.
In 1990, it acquired the Dartmouth, Nova Scotia refinery with the purchase of other assets of Texaco Canada.[1]
In 1991, Lasmo, a British oil company, bought Ultramar plc and in 1992 Lasmo spun off the North American refining and marketing operations which became known as Ultramar Corporation.[2]
In 1994, Ultramar acquired Sergaz (founded in 1971 by André Ducharme) and Sunoco's Quebec gas stations. Some gas stations still operate under Sergaz but most were closed.
In 1996, Ultramar Corporation merged with Diamond Shamrock to form Ultramar Diamond Shamrock.[3]
In 1997, the Sunoco name was withdrawn from Quebec, and all stations converted to the Ultramar brand.
The refinery in Lévis was renamed in honour of retired Ultramar Diamond Shamrock CEO Jean Gaulin in 2001.[1]
On December 31, 2001, Valero Energy Corporation completed its acquisition of Ultramar Diamond Shamrock.[4]
On May 1, 2013, Ultramar was spun off from Valero into CST Brands. Following the 2016 purchase of CST by Alimentation Couche-Tard, the Ultramar brand and most of its Canadian locations were acquired by Parkland Fuel.[5][6][7]
Couche-Tard retained 36 Ultramar stations in Atlantic Canada. In June 2018, Couche-Tard announced that many of these locations would rebrand as Circle K and switch fuel suppliers to Irving. 13 of the locations were sold to Irving outright, but remain operated by Couche-Tard (a similar arrangement to most other Irving locations), and the other 23 were sold to Parkland Fuel after a temporary rebrand.[8][9][10]
Operations
Ultramar was also active in industrial sales and wholesale supply.
Statistics
Ultramar had 983 service stations, 87 truck stop facilities and 169,000 home heating oil customers.
It directly employed 3,600 people and indirectly employed 10,000. The refinery in Lévis produced 265,000 barrels (or 41.5 million litres) per day.
References
- Ultramar: Our history Archived 2012-08-22 at the Wayback Machine
- "Diamond Shamrock R & M, Inc". Scripophily.
- "Ultramar to Buy Gas Retailer for $1.96 Billion". Los Angeles Times. Bloomberg Business News. September 24, 1996. Retrieved May 12, 2014.
- Valero plans to buy Ultramar Los Angeles Times, 8 May 2001
- "Parkland to buy CST's Canadian assets from Couche-Tard in $965-million deal". The Globe and Mail. 2016-08-22. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
- "Couche-Tard gets US$4.4-billion deal with CST Brands; Parkland Fuels gets a piece". Canadian Press. Retrieved 2019-06-30.
- Aug. 22, Greg Lindenberg on; 2016. "Parkland to Acquire Most of CST's Canadian Assets". CSP Daily News. Retrieved 2019-06-30.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
- "A dozen N.L. Ultramar stations being converted to Irving and Circle K as part of joint venture". The Telegram. Retrieved 2019-06-30.
- "Irving purchases St. Peters Road Ultramar, rebranding to begin soon". CBC News. July 5, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
- Intiar, Inda (2018-07-04). "Irving Oil Buys 13 Ultramar Gas Stations Across Atlantic Canada". Huddle. Retrieved 2019-06-30.
