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Jobbers World Online News Briefs is a service to
Subscribers to the Jobbers World Newsletter.
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CITGO Increases Price on Finished Lubricants |
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On November 7, CITGO advised its marketers that it
will implement a general price increase of $0.28 a
gallon to be effective on December 4, 2006. The
increase was said to affect CITGO and Mystik-branded
finished lubricants. It will apply to all package
types, including bulk.
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ConocoPhillips Shines a Spotlight on Its Stars! |
Light, camera, and action! According to some
marketers in attendance at ConocoPhillips annual
marketers meeting last week, ConocoPhillips
literally treated its marketers like stars. The
venue was Opry Town / Music City USA, otherwise
known as Nashville, TN for those who were born well
after Elvis was King.
Marketers say the opening ceremonies made them
understand what it feels like to be nominated for an
academy award. A “stars marquee” welcomed them when
they arrived, and ConocoPhillips literally rolled
out the red carpet for its marketers. The “stars”
theme continued from there with other activity
reminiscent of Hollywood, including film clips of
its marketers in action leading right up to and
including their participation at the meeting.
In the words of several marketers JobbersWorld
spoke with last week, it was good stuff and it made
them feel like the focus was on them. These
marketers said that rather than walking into and
away from the meeting feeling like it was just one
of many where the majors talk about themselves and
what they will be doing, and giving “lip service” to
their marketer’s questions, this meeting was
different. ConocoPhillips focused on its marketers
and why ConocoPhillips is the one to grow with. In
addition, rather than avoiding sensitive issues, Tom
Liberti, general manager, ConocoPhillips Lubricants,
along with others, reportedly faced market realities
straight up (including the hit it took from
hurricanes last year).
Beyond being simply an excellent example of well
orchestrated feel good theatrics, preliminary
feedback from marketers indicated there was real
substances to what ConocoPhillips had to say.
Moreover, they felt there was meaning to
ConocoPhillips treating its marketers like stars. In
the words of several marketers, the message was
simple – ConocoPhillips really values its marketers
and is working hard to assure its the best company
for them to do business with.
It should be noted that this is preliminary
feedback and there was some concerns (albeit few)
expressed that Jobbers World will probe deeper into.
Additional details on the meeting will be published
later this week in the print issue of Jobbers World.
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ExMo Letting Some Go |
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Word on the street for the past few months is that
ExxonMobil would be trimming its field sales staff
by an estimated 20% by the end of the year. Although
it’s hard to say if the 20% rumor is over or under,
or even real, one thing for certain is that there
appears to be some pruning underway. Several
marketers say their ExMo sales reps stopped by to
show them their ExMo parting gifts and to bid them
adieu.
Based on what Jobbers World is hearing there are
at least eight ExMo sales reps who have been
impacted by recent efforts to rationalize field
sales. In the views of some marketers such leaning
may be a necessary evil if ExMo wants to take it to
the next level. And although there will be
causualties, they say it will make both them and
ExMo stronger moving forward.
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ROYAL WELCOMES STEVE HUMPHREYS |
Royal Manufacturing Company, a Tulsa, OK based
manufacturer of fluid lubricants and greases, is
pleased to announce Steve Humphreys as the company’s
Director of Technical Services. Steve comes to Royal
with nearly 20 years experience in the lubricants
industry and over 15 years experience in lubricant
and grease development and formulating.
As Technical Director, Steve will service our
customers by leading our quality control program,
directing all research and development activities
and lending technical assistance to operations and
production.
In addition to his practical experience, Steve
holds a BS degree in both Chemistry and Mathematics
and recently earned an MBA. On top of that, he has
taught both chemistry and math at the high school
level.
Jim Gott, General Manager of Royal, says “...
Steve will be a great asset to our technical team.
In addition to his experience as a tribologist, he
possesses great hands on experience with all phases
of lubricants...”
Royal and affiliate companies have been in
operation since 1914 providing quality lubricants
for off highway, industrial and heavy equipment
users.
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Lubricant Base Stocks - Plan for the Unexpected! |
Petroleum Trends International, Inc. (PTI) presented
a paper, at the National Petroleum Refiners
Association (NPRA) November 10th meeting. The
subject of the paper was the increasing risks in the
Base Stock Business.
Thomas F. Glenn, president of PTI says, the past two
years have taught both buyers and sellers of base
stock a great deal and maybe the most important
lesson is to "plan for the unexpected."
Glenn says, with the market becoming increasingly
global and nearly 70% of the US supply of lubricant
base stocks now concentrated in the Gulf Coast, the
probability of supply line interruptions increases.
And although its comforting to hear and depend on
some of those rosy forecasts seen in the press, it
can be dangerous if one does not have contingency
plans in place to plan on the unexpected.
Click here for a copy of the presentation
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