MANILA — Chevron Corp., the marketer of the Caltex brand of fuels and lubricants, plans to set up 100 to 200 gasoline stations in the Philippines within the next five years.

Shahid Ahmed, Chevron’s Asia Pacific Sales & Marketing Support General Manager, told reporters that the company looks for partner-franchisers in Luzon as the company prepares to compete fiercely in a market where it is largest in Asia.

Ahmed said that Chevron has “a network of 2,000 sites across Asia and we are looking to add 500 across Asia in the next couple of years and 25 to 50 percent of that is going to come to the Philippines.”

He said he is not worried that “unbranded sites” proliferate in the country.

Many “small unbranded sites” have cropped up nationwide offering imported oil relatively cheaper than what the three giant companies offer.

Chevron has 800 Caltex stations in the country.
“Three of our largest markets are Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia. Philippines is actually the largest market that we operate across Asia so it’s a very large focus for the business. It has a lot of regional attention and a lot of regional support,” Ahmed said.

Ahmed said the expansion will depend on how fast franchisers take up their offer. “Our business is built around investors,” Ahmed said.

“We believe that the investors in the community are the ones who know their market best so what we want to do is we want to be able to offer them all the things that come from being part of the Caltex network but they are the ones to figure out how they will operate in the communities in which they operate and that is why we’re looking for local partners,” he added.

“We’re looking for good investors who want to make good returns and who want to actually develop the community they operate in,” he noted.

Ahmed said that the benchmark investment for franchising a Caltex station in the country will differ and depend on location.

He said that areas in Luzon, particularly Metro Manila, will remain the company’s focus for expansion but other locations outside it are also being considered.

“It is really about where we can find the strong partners that will drive our growth, it’s not centered in one particular area. It’s where the investors are, where they can actually provide good and effective solutions to the customers for that area and we help (them) by finding where the volumes are and in selecting the sites,” Ahmed said.

Chevron is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide.

The company is involved in exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas, as well as in refining and marketing fuels and lubricants.