Parkland’s forecourt makeovers
Calgary darling, Parkland Corporation is ramping things up. With its bullish acquisition of over 100 Husky retail gas stations from Cenvous Energy last year, Parkland wasted no time in converting its newly found assets.
“The makeovers are underway!” reads a post on Parkland’s LinkedIn site. “We are busy converting 163 sites to On The Run (OTR) and associate fuel brands. What customers will find is a warm and inviting space inside, along with the opportunity to collect Journie Rewards points at locations across the country.”
[Read more: “Parkland’s new retail petroleum station serves up variety in a crowded market”]
The c/gas operator has completed 27 conversions to the end of the first quarter so far.
Parkland’s field of service includes customers across Canada, the United States, the Caribbean region and the Americas. It services its customers through three channels: retail, commercial and wholesale. But lately, its been all about Canada: the conversion of more than 160 sites began in the Calgary, Alta., market; Parkland’s home.
“We’re ramping up the integration of Husky sites into our network, boosting our customer coverage and offer,” reads a video shared to the company’s social media sites.
In Calgary, 10 Husky locations have been converted to trusted Parkland brands so far. Its network includes trusted fuel-retail brands Chevron, Fas Gas Plus, Pioneer, Ultramar, RaceTrac and Esso, among others.
The converted locations include the three Husky sites in Sunalta, Mount Royal and Sandstone, near Calgary. All of which have been converted from Husky to Chevron gas stations with OTR c-stores.
“We want to make the lives of our customers easier and there’s no better way of doing that than being right in the communities where they live and work. With the integration of more than 330 sites into our Canadian retail network, we’re taking coverage to a whole new level,” says Ian White, president of Parkland Canada. “We’ve opened the doors for our customers, so to speak, providing them with more options across the country, and increased access to our offers, including Journie Rewards, warm and inviting OTR convenience spaces, reliable fuel brands and the exceptional customer experience they’ve come to expect.”
Parkland’s Journie Rewards program gives customers 2 points for every $1 spent on in-store purchases, along with car washes, at participating locations.
“Our teams have done an extraordinary job with the integration and conversion efforts, transforming sites seamlessly in a short period of time and bringing our OTR and fuel brands to life in more communities,” adds White. “We’re excited to welcome all the new retailers who joined us through the transition to the Parkland team. They bring energy, enthusiasm and experience to the network, and I know they are eager to hit the ground running and show our customers everything they have to offer.”
On its site, Parkland says its convenience store focus is an aggressive expansion of OTR stores, adding over 1,000 OTR locations to its network of existing stores and The Corner Store and Snack Express (which it also owns and operates) by 2024.
For now, the company plans on completing all of its Husky site conversions by the end of the year.
Stand-alone c-stores
In addition, last week Parkland celebrated the opening of its first standalone convenience store in Richmond, B.C. The urban On the Run convenience store is one of 50 urban locations the company announced in January 2022.
The company said at the time it aims to have about 1,000 c-stores across Canada and the U.S. by the end of 2025. These sites will be located in a mix of urban and suburban markets, for the most part accompanying retail gas sites.
