Be Sure With Pure
Celebrating 15 years as a co-op, and nearly 100 years as a leading American petroleum brand.
Taking our act on the road!
PURE Co-op objective: increase exposure of the PURE brand outside of the Southeast
This PURE Oil Jobbers Cooperative trade show display has been put to good use in the field at industry trade shows this year.
In an attempt to increase the exposure of the PURE brand outside of the Southeastern United States, as well as the membership of the PURE Oil Jobbers Cooperative beyond its original 10-state region, the PURE Co-op is taking its act on the road!
That is, the Co-op staff has been busy as vendors and/or participants in state and regional trade shows all across the country, introducing the PURE brand and Firebird logo to new friends and potential additions to the family of petroleum marketers that make up the PURE Oil Jobbers Cooperative, Inc. This is a critical time and watershed moment for the organization, says Frank Dotson, general manager of the PURE Co-op.
“When this Co-op was founded a little more than 15 years ago, we concentrated our membership to the Southeast because that’s where the jobbers were when Unocal pulled out of this region back then,” says Dotson. “But a little known byproduct of those negotiations with Unocal was that we obtained the rights to the PURE brand and Firebird logo, as well as opportunities to expand our membership, into all 50 states. This is the first major step in our master plan for growing the PURE brand outside of the area where we were founded.”
Dotson and his fellow district sales managers have been busy traveling the trade show circuit, with several more industry events still to come this summer and fall. With a new display and collateral materials in hand, the PURE sales team is sharing the benefits of Co-op membership and the competitive advantages of the independent PURE petroleum brand to marketers within the Southeast, as well as those in 13 additional states targeted by the organization.
Jobbers being introduced to the PURE Co-op and petroleum brand include those members of trade associations within the new territory that includes: Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Maryland (Mid-Atlantic), Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan.
For starters, the PURE Co-op participated as a vendor in the Petroleum and Convenience Store Exposition of Mid-America (PACE), held in Branson, Missouri on Feb. 27-28. The PACE events is hosted by the state associations of Kansas and Missouri. This 13th annual joint Missouri-Kansas regional tradeshow featured approximately 2,200 marketers attending the event themed: “a change of PACE.”
After attending the PACE event in late February, PURE then had a presence at the Midwest Petroleum and Convenience Tradeshow (M-PACT) in Indianapolis on March 25-26. The first M-PACT event was held in 2002 by the Indiana and Illinois trade associations, with Kentucky and Ohio joining as hosts the following year. Today, M-PACT is the largest regional petroleum tradeshow in the Midwest.
Those considering membership in the PURE Co-op have responded favorably to the idea that they will have equal ownership in the organization, as each member can obtain only one share of stock. As a result, influence in the PURE Co-op remains equally divided among all members, who have a voice in its operation and a vested interest in its success.
PURE Co-op members are entitled to monthly rebates and annual dividends, which have been given every year since 1996. The PURE Co-op also offers strength in numbers when negotiating prices and volumes for product supply, as well as business services such as insurance, credit card processing, uniforms and apparel, and more. Even so, PURE Co-op members retain autonomy to make their own decisions concerning the imaging standards of their branded sites.
If you or someone you know would like more information about the PURE independent petroleum brand, or more details on the benefits of PURE Co-op membership, contact us at 803-328-5284.
Media contact:
Chris Wood, Ph.D.
770-757-1681 (cell)
jcwood@uga.edu (email)
Tagged: pure oil jobbers cooperative, pure branding, pure trade shows