MANILA, Philippines - Petron Corp., the country’s top oil refiner, further widens its presence as it breached the 2,000 mark in the number of service stations, a top company official said.
Petron chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang, in a statement, said the company now has 2,025 service stations across the Philippines as of the third quarter of the year.
He said this is by far the largest in the industry.
In comparison, the combined stations of the second and third largest oil firms operating in the country–Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Caltex Philippines, still fall short of Petron’s network.
Shell, also an oil refiner, has about 1,100 stations while Caltex has around 830 stations.
In 2009, Petron embarked on a massive network expansion program primarily aimed at giving Filipinos more access to its top-of-the-line products and services.
Ang said the company has provided hundreds of Filipino entrepreneurs an opportunity to partner with a company they can trust.
With this, Petron has increased the number of its service stations by nearly 60 percent since the expansion started nearly four years ago.
The network expansion, Ang said, has also allowed the company to enhance its leadership position with 38.3 percent of the market as of the first quarter of 2012.
“Today, even the most far-flung areas of our country have Petron service stations, enabling our countrymen to have access to world-class products and services while spurring growth in the countryside,” Ang said.
“This is our vision and we are making it come true one service station at a time.”
The company official said their expansion program is ongoing with dozens of service stations in various stages of development and construction at any time.