Flying V to double retail network this year

MANILA, Philippines - Flying V, an independent oil player run and managed by the Villavicencio family, will put up 100 gasoline stations nationwide — more than double its current network — in line with its aggressive expansion program.

Flying V chairman Ramon Villavicencio said they expect to complete the construction of the 100 retail stations before the end of the year.

“We already have 75 stations in the pipeline now and are being constructed all over the country,” he said. This will allow us to cope up with growing competition in the market.”

Flying V currently maintains 75 medium-sized gasoline stations in the country. One gasoline station needs between P1 million to P2 million to build.

Villavicencio said they would correspondingly increase the capacity of their depot to accommodate the rise in the number of their gasoline stations.

Petron Corp., the country’s largest oil refiner and with the biggest retail network, earlier announced plans to put up small retail stations to prevent the small oil firms from eating up its market share.

Petron president Eric Recto said they would invest about P450 million to put up small retail stations in the next 12 months.

This investment would allow Petron to establish some 200 more “pre-fabricated models that can start with two-three product pumps but easily expandable as demand grows.”

Recto said they have started building these smaller gas stations early this year. “We have built around 14 to 15 stations already in the provinces mostly in the Visayas and Mindanao,” he said.

Petron’s market share stood at 39 percent as of end-2008 from 38.6 percent in 2007. It has nearly 1,300 service stations nationwide.

The strategy, Recto said, is to put up relatively small retail stations in the provinces since Metro Manila is already saturated. The 200 outlets, which will be mostly dealer-owned, will be part of the 1,000 stations it plans to put up in the next three years.— Donnabelle Gatdula