Total Lubricants Canada has acquired Ultramars lubricants business, and Total branded lubricants will be sold throughout the Ultramar network through a partnership announced Monday.
Montreal-based Ultramars company-operated stations will offer Total lubricants to their customers while Ultramar will also recommend Total lubricants to its business partners. The price of the lubricants business acquisition was not disclosed.
Olivier Goutal, president of Total Lubricants Canada, said Total sought a stronger presence in the eastern part of Canada, which made Ultramar a good fit. Ultramar has quite a large service station network in the eastern part of Canada, including Ontario, Quebec, and all the eastern provinces, Goutal told Lube Report.
Total Lubricants Canada has a 35,000 metric tons per year blending plant in Montreal, which was built in 2000. The company employs 54 in its offices and plants in Montreal, Quebec, Toronto and Calgary. We will take over five employees, which were all the employees working directly in the lubricants business of Ultramar, he noted.
Total said the alliance will allow Ultramar customers to benefit from Totals automotive and industrial products, including synthetic, fuel efficient and biodegradable lubricants.
We are present in the same segments as Ultramar, so we will extend our customer bases through this partnership, Goutal continued. While we both market the same kind of lubricants, our lubricants range is much wider. So for Ultramar customers, this deal will give access to a wider range of products.
In December 2007, French major Total acquired Canadian blender Tribospec, and changed its name to Total Lubricants Canada. In December 2008, the company signed a five-year lubricants distribution agreement for Canusa Automotive Warehousing to distribute Total automotive lubricants and coolants in Ontario. In September 2009, Total Lubricants Canada appointed M&R Environmental Ltd. as a distributor in British Columbia.
A subsidiary of Valero Energy Corp., Ultramar owns and operates the 265,000 barrels per day Jean-Gaulin refinery at Levis, near Quebec City. Products include gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, home heating oil, butane and fuel oil. Ultramar, which has more than 3,700 employees, markets gasoline and diesel fuel via a network of 830 retail sales outlets and 85 cardlocks for the trucking industry, in addition to selling home heating oil.