US E15 success stories featured in new video campaign

American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), a US bioethanol trade body, has announced the first two in a series of fuel marketer-focused videos on the flexfuelforward.com website, part of a campaign to feature real world E15 and flex fuel retailer success stories.

The series will address common marketer questions about E15 and flex fuels with straightforward answers from retailers who have already implemented E15 and flex fuels successfully.

In large cities like Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and small towns like Gothenburg, Nebraska, single-store and small chain retailers, along with some of the largest independent convenience store chains, are proving E15 and flex fuels are east to implement, profitable, and helping marketers stand out from their competition, according to ACE.

One video released introduced the series and some of the people who will be featured in future campaign videos. All episodes are hosted by ACE Senior Vice President Ron Lamberty, a veteran of nearly 40 years of owning and operating c-stores.

The second video features Bob O’Connor, who became the first E15 and flex fuel retailer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last November when he added the fuels at one of his Jetz Convenience Centers.

“Not only did we sell higher blends of ethanol and create a new profit center for ourselves, but what’s kind of an unexpected consequence of that — all our gasoline sales went up in volume, so it was an across-the-board lift,” O’Connor said. “And store volume increased at the same time.”

 Those results convinced Jetz to add E15 and flex fuels to a second location this spring.

O’Connor accompanied a “sneak preview” of the videos at ACE’s booth at the National Association of Convenience Stores’ (NACS) trade show in Chicago last month (October, 2017) and provided “live and in person” answers to other retailers’ E15 and flex fuel questions.

“The Flex Fuel Forward campaign recognises marketers trust the experience and opinions of other marketers. They want to hear from station owners who have already ‘been there and done that,’”Lamberty said.

He added: “Thousands of stations across the country are now selling E15 and flex fuels, and they aren’t doing it as a favor to anybody, they’re doing it because they make more money.”