- Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
National's Stanton Terrace gas station in Kingston.
Al Edwards, Business Co-ordinator
LOCAL GAS station outlet National Fuels and Lubricants (NFL), run by Roy D'Cambre, is in the process of being acquired by the integrated French oil company Total, Sunday Business understands.
NFL has been courted for the better part of the last two years by some of the world's largest multi-national oil retail companies and is viewed as a valuable prize for the leading gas retailers operating in Jamaica.
Back in 2000 he held discussions with both Mobil and BP Amoco about a possible sale but chose instead to expand his number of gas stations. In 2002, the Shell Company of Jamaica made an offer to acquire the petroleum retailer for a sum in excess of J$500 million.
Then Shell had 61 stations with volumes of approximately 18 million litres per month going through them. At that time Shell was keen to expand its operations in the Caribbean and Latin America and so purchased the Yubucoa refinery in Puerto Rico from the Sun Oil Company.
Total began negotiations with NFL late last year. The French oil giant then was looking to get a foothold into Jamaica and planned to place stations along the Highway 2000 project being constructed by French company Bouygues. Sunday Business understands that Total's initial offer bettered the Shell bid, but Mr. D'Cambre held out deciding to franchise his stations and expand his outlets in the interim. He also took time to concentrate on running his recently acquired fast food franchise, Church's.
Speaking with The Gleaner last year, Mr. D'Cambre said: "With our current rate of expansion it is getting unwieldy to manage 23 stations with four more coming on stream for 2004. The optimum number of stations for National is 32 and we will achieve that by the end of 2004. With this in mind, franchising the stations is viable in that additional revenue can be derived and it puts less stress on my management team.
"The franchises will be determined by volume, with the stations going for between $3 million and $7.5 million for a tenure of 10 years. For that the franchisee gets the goodwill of the business and volume of sales at the pump."
NFL has also been pushing its own brand of products made by the state-owned Venezue-lan company, Venoco.
The products include lubricants, motor oil, coolant and brake fluid all under the brand name Guard.
Mr. D'Cambre last year added the Meineke car centre franchise to his portfolio of businesses, which include the fast food chain Church's, Hapha-zard Gaming Centre in New Kingston, the National gas stations, the Italian restaurant Portofino and a number of Guard automotive products and three racehorses.
The Meineke enterprise came in at a cost of $26 million.
NFL is estimated to sell approximately seven million litres of gas per month at the pumps.
Speaking with Sunday Business yesterday about this latest deal with Total, Mr. D'Cambre said: "I can't discuss any prices with you but I will tell you this. I'm like a pretty Indian girl I've had proposals but the dowry is not right. I've been offered two goats but I'm looking for a cow."
