Thrifty Oil Co.: gasoline retailer goes pump-to-pump with industry giants.

Thrifty Oil Co. Gasoline retailer goes pump-to-pump with industry giants

The Thrifty Oil Co. knows all about competition. Each day the Downey-based private gasoline retailer and refiner goes pump-to-pump with industry giants like the Atlantic Richfield Co, and Unocal.

Yet it is this competition that has spurred Thrifty to adopt a successful marketing strategy - one that has helped make it one of the largest private companies in Los Angeles County and the sixt largest in California in 1988.

We've learned a lot of over the last 30 years competing against companies like Arco, Shell Mobile, Texaco and Unocal," said Barry Berkett, Thrifty's executive vice president. "These are some of the biggest companies in the world."

Executives at Thrifty would not disclose annul revenues, but other sources estimate the figure at $1 billion. The company employs an estimated 1,000 offices and 1,500 companywide.

Thrifty is a diversified company engaged in three principal business activities:petroleum refining, gasoline and convenience food retailing and development and leasing of commercial properties.

Golden West Distribution Co., Thrifty;s subsidiary, owns and operates a 45,000-barrels-per-day refinery in santa fe Springs. The refinery produces mainly gasoline, high-sulfer fuel oil and asphalt. Thrifty acquired the facility in 1983 from Gulf Oil Corp. as a way of insuring a fuel supply for its retail outlets. Golden West also owns a marine terminal in Long Beach.

Thrifty's retail emphasis is almost exclusively on high-volume gasoline sales. The company owns in excess of 300 gas stations, many of which operate in conjunction with Sunshine Food Store, Thrifty's proprietary convenience food store chain.

Berkett thinks the company has excelled in gasoline sales because of its retail marketing agency.

"Our average sales are viewed by many as highest in the industry," Berkett said. "Thrifty was one of the early innovators of high-volume, low-margin operations with modern facilities. We have good locations and attempt to pass te economies to the customer."

The company has continued to grow, Berkett said, because of some key Thrifty acquisitions. He pointed to the purchase of the Southern California marketing assets of American Oil Co. in the 1970s and Gulf Oil in the early 1980s.

Thrifty has also become involved in commercial developments over the last 10 years. To date, these efforts have centered primarily upon the leasing of selected gasoline stations to major oil companies and a large convenience store chain.

In addition, the company is also placing new emphasis on the redevelopment of selected parcels of commercial land, believed to have significantly higher and better uses than as gasoline stations.

Berkett said Thrifty is currently developing a number of strip-center mini malls, a few smaller office buildings in Santa Barbara and a 12,000-square-foot project in Santa Monica.

For the time being, Berkett said the company has an optimistic outlook.

"The company continues to grow and become stronger, improving the profitability of each location through either diversification or improvements to the physical facilities at the individual locations. Our strategy is growth, location and location," Berkett said.

The executive vice president added that Thrifty is continuing to expand and modernize company properties through the remodeling of gas stations and the construction of more convenience stores.

Berkett said that one of the biggest hurdles Thrifty has faced in recent times has been adapting to Southern California's changing environmental and regulatory environment.

"The cost of complying with increasingly stringent environmental regulations have created major expenses and challenges to refiners and retailers like us in the petroleum industry," Berkett said.

He noted two major changes - many of which have been caused by regulation tightening on the pat of the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency  - that the company has dealt with recently.

"From a protective standpoint we have substantially replaced all of our storage tanks with state-of-the art equipment, Berkett said. "We've also made - at enormous cost - modifications on our refineries to meet new regulatory requirements."

He added that Thrifty, like all the petroleum companies,also have reduced the lead in their gasolines and the sulfur in their diesel fuel.

Thrifty Oil Co., whose operations are almost exclusively based in Southern California, was founded in September of 1961. It is ranked as the 148th largest privately held company in the United States.

PHOTO : Santa Fe Springs: Refinery processes 45,000 barrels a day

PHOTO : Outlets: Thrifty supplies more than one type of fuel

PHOTO : Workers: Thrifty employs 1,000 in Los Angeles County