Errol Edwards, former president of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers' Association of Jamaica and a converted Esso dealer.

Jamaican service station franchisees of the French oil company Total want the firm to pull out of the retail end of the business here, thereby leaving that segment of petroleum market to them.

Total's boss in Jamaica, Luc Maiche was not immediately available for comment on the idea. However, Errol Edwards, whose former Esso service station in Kingston recently converted to Total's livery, suggested yesterday that the French company was not entirely hostile to the idea and that formal negotiations on the matter with its dealers could begin within a month.

"They have verbally indicated that they are going to get out of the retail business," Edwards, a former president of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers' Association (JGRA), told the Financial Gleaner.

"We intend to be strident on that."

Marketing focus

If Total complies, its focus would be on marketing petrol to service stations and selling to large customers poached from competitors.

Total entered the Jamaican market earlier this decade when it acquired Roy D'Cambre's small chain of National petrol stations, which was attempting to break the hold on the Jamaican petroleum market by three big global players - Esso, Shell and Texaco.

At the time of its acquisition, National accounted for around 10 per cent of the market.

Since then there have been other acquisitions that have reshaped the ownership and the broader dynamics of the petroleum market.

Control of 90 stations

For example, in 2005 Joe Issa's Cool Group, with its handful of service stations, acquired Shell's petroleum operations in Jamaica, putting its control of service stations here close to 90 and giving it the largest share of the market.

Two years ago, Total bought Esso Standard Oil's assets in Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands from ExxonMobil.

In Jamaica, that acquisition gave Total control of 33 franchised service stations to go with the 15 it owned itself and about a third of the petroleum market.

All the franchisees maintained their relationship with Total and the company is now in the process of rebranding the service stations - a job that started towards the end of October.

"All the existing contracts have been conferred; there was absolutely no change," Maiche said this week. "We have rebranded 10 stations, we have 23 stations to rebrand."

But Edwards, whose service station near Half-Way Tree square was among the first to be rebranded, suggested that Total's place in the retail market remained a troublesome matter.

"(This is a) thorny issue … because they are competing against their own dealers," he said.

According to Edwards, Esso did not itself operate service stations, the only one of the market companies not to be directly in the retail market.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com

Total's new service station in Liguanea, one of 10 Esso stations already rebranded by the French company. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer