Gate Petroleum
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| Gate Petroleum, Inc. | |
|---|---|
| Image:Gatelogo 160x158.PNG | |
| Type | Private |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Headquarters | Jacksonville, Florida, USA |
| Key people | Herb Peyton, CEO, Chairman, and President |
| Industry | Retail (Convenience stores) Precast concrete |
| Products | Gas, grocery, convenience items, snacks, beer & soft drinks, ice |
| Revenue | $1.17 billion (2005) |
| Slogan | "Swing to Gate" |
| Website | www.gatepetro.com |
Gate Petroleum is a privately held diversified corporation headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. Herbert Hill Peyton started the company in 1960 with a single gas station. The company grew throughout the ‘60s selling gas in the southeast. In FY 2005, the company employed approximately 3,500 people with sales of $1.17 billion. Service stations and convenience foods are still the core business of the company. Jacksonville's current mayor John Peyton is the son of company founder Herb Peyton and is on leave from Gate while serving as mayor.
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[edit] History
In 1972, due the oil crisis, the company began to diversify and added convenience items to their service station shelves.
In the early 1980s, Peyton transformed the company from being primarily a petroleum retailer to a diversified conglomerate. He bought the Florida real estate holdings of Stockton, Whatley, Davin & Co., which was then owned by Phillips Petroleum Company. The purchase included more than 50,000 acres (200 km²) of land in northeast Florida, including the land which now comprises Guana River State Park in St. Johns County, Florida, four miles (6 km) of oceanfront real estate, the Deerwood Club, the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club and vast commercial properties near Interstate 95 in what became one of the fastest growing areas of Florida.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Gate added to its growing network of service stations, the Blount Island Maritime facility, several precast concrete manufacturing plants located throughout the southeastern United States, the Riverplace Tower in downtown Jacksonville, additional premier private clubs and other operations.[1]
[edit] Building Materials
The Gate Construction Materials division consists of two companies. Gate Precast [1] manufactures architectural precast at facilities in Sarasota & Kissimmee, Florida; Monroeville, Alabama; Oxford, North Carolina; Ashland City, Tennessee; Little Rock, Arkansas; Dallas, Texas & Winchester, Kentucky. Gate Concrete Products manufactures structural precast and hollow core concrete fabrication at facilities in Jacksonville, Florida and Pearland, Texas. The sales area includes most of the southeast and midwest.
[edit] Divisions
[edit] Resorts and Clubs
The company owns and operates four private clubs in the Jacksonville area: Epping Forest Yacht Club, [2], Ponte Vedra Inn & Club,[3] The Lodge & Club [4] and The River Club, [5] a members-only dining establishment located in the top 2 floors of the 37-story Modis building.
[edit] Real Estate Development
GL National (Gate Lands) is the commercial real estate division of Gate. Real estate developments have included Deerwood Park, a 1,000-acre (4.0 km²) office park on the south side of Jacksonville and the adjacent Southpoint Office Park; Kendall Town at Regency is the most recent project. Other developments include the Shops at Ponte Vedra, the Shops at Bartram Walk, Riverplace Tower [6] (28 stories currently bearing the Wachovia name) and the 5,400-acre (22 km²) Cummer Trust Property in northern St. Johns County. Ponte Vedra Club Realty [7] is a full service real estate company in business since 1937. Gate Title Company [8]offers title insurance and closing services in north Florida.
[edit] Gate Marketing
Gate Retail Stores encompass 225 gas and convenience stores in 6 states. The retail management is split into two divisions. The southern division in Jacksonville encompasses Gate stores in Florida, and the northern division, managed from Charlotte, NC controls the stores in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky.
Gate Fleet Service [9] is a fleet management tool to provide control of purchases and increased driver accountability. The Universal Card is affiliated with Voyager, accepted at 200,000+ locations. The Gate Private Label Card is accepted at all Gate stores.
Gate Fuel Service, as a distributor and jobber, operates 19 tank trailers and 12 tankwagons (dedicated to the Jacksonville service) and serves hundreds of customers with gasoline and diesel throughout Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Kentucky, and Louisiana. In addition, Gate supplies the gas for convenience stores owned by its parent.
The company typically handles 300 million gallons of product annually — 80 million gallons of which are for wholesale accounts. In addition, a small amount of fuel oil is provided for residential accounts over about a three-month period each year. Gate also handles diesel and gasoline under Exxon, BP, Citgo, and Marathon brands. Some product is transported by common carriers in addition to Gate tank trailers. GFS limits its bulk tank storage to 20,000 gallons for high- and low-sulfur diesel and kerosene, preferring to maintain low storage inventory as part of its operation plan. Gate also prefers to load gasoline at terminals and transport it from there to customers rather than handling the product at company facilities, which eliminates the need for underground storage tanks and their accompanying environmental requirements. The company also entered the lubricants business a few years ago.
Although the petroleum service is typical — gasoline, diesel, kerosene — several of Gate's customers are not. One reason for the diversity is the Jacksonville area, which has a nearby US Navy base and a commercial port, a Professional Golf Association (PGA) annual tournament, and a NASCAR facility (Daytona). As part of its fuel service, Gate Marine delivers fuel directly to ships in the port, including diesel for tug boats that move US Navy ships in the nearby harbor. Gate hauls special fuel for racing vehicles at the Daytona International Speedway and supplies diesel for generators used at the PGA Players Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach. More typical for a petroleum distributor is the night service for trucking companies that keeps their storage tanks filled with diesel. Similar services are provided for automobile dealers to supply gasoline for vehicles on the sales lots.[10]
[edit] Gate Sponsored Events
Gate sponsors numerous civic activities and charitable events in the Jacksonville area. The most well known is the Gate River Run a 15K US National championship race that attracts more than 15,000 runners each year—the largest 15K in the USA. Another big event is the Gate Open, a charity golf tournament for the area’s best amateur and professional golfers.
[edit] Future
In October, 2007 Gate Biofuels announced plans to construct a terminal at the port in Jacksonville to receive and store Ethanol, which would be blended with gasoline before distribution to gas stations. Nationwide, ethanol production increased 33% from the prior year creating an oversupply because few distributors were prepared to perform the blending process. Another product under consideration is biodiesel, which is made from natural oils. The $90 million facility will have both rail and ship capabilities and is expected to be completed in 2010. [11]
[edit] References
- ^ "Gate Petroleum Company", Rogers Towers, retrieved November 19, 2007
