Castrols industrial lubricant business has scrapped a market-based structure adopted last year in favor of focusing its organization again on geographic markets. Officials say the business has not simply reverted to its old structure – that it continues developing service- and product-focused platforms. But packaging of offerings to different types of customers will generally be carried out within specific regions. We want to be more customer-focused, said Christine Loyer, spokeswoman for ...

Union members on Friday ratified a four-year contract covering ChevronTexacos Richmond, Calif., complex, including its 14,000 barrel-per-day base oil refinery. The former contract expired Jan. 31 but members of Local 865 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union had continued working under rolling 24-hour agreements. Thefundamentals of the new contract were established Jan. 31 when the union accepted a Shell contract that served as an industry pattern under...

Grocery and convenience stores have surpassed service stations as the most numerous U.S. outlets for motor oil, according to a new report by the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association. Of course, the grocery/convenience store channel is still far from the biggest in terms of motor oil volume. The associations triennial Aftermarket Chemicals and Fluids Report says that 95,100 grocery and convenience stores carried motor oil in 2001, an increase of 2,500 from 1998, while the service station c...