BP strikes deal to acquire X Convenience petrol stations

A global petrol giant has struck a deal to buy a popular family-owned South Australian service station chain.

BP has struck a deal to acquire family-owned fuel and convenience retailer X Convenience and its network of more than 50 petrol stations across South Australia and Western Australia.

Established in 2006 by the Adelaide-based Kosmidis family, X Convenience has rapidly grown its footprint across its primary market in South Australia, adopting a similar model to rival OTR, based on a higher-end convenience ­offering designed to lure consumers to spend more time and money in-store.

It expanded into Western Australia in 2021 with the opening of the first of two sites it currently operates in Perth.

BP would not disclose the purchase price, but said the acquisition would include a combination of freehold and leasehold ownership.

The binding agreement is subject to various approvals, and will require sign-off from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

BP vice president of business development and low carbon solutions Lisa Archbold said the deal would strengthen BP’s presence in the South Australian market following Viva Energy’s $1.215bn acquisition of OTR, which previously sourced most of its fuel from BP.

The X Convenience at Elizabeth Downs. Picture: Mark Brake

“We’re focused on retaining a really strong national presence and so the X Convenience opportunity was one that we were looking at to ensure that we retained that,” she said.

“And it wasn’t just about the sites. It was also about the fact that this is a really terrific network – it’s got a terrific offer and it’s got a terrific convenience brand, so it strategically fits with us as well, both in the fuels and in the convenience space.

“It’s certainly an enormous local success story, and it’s grown really rapidly. The offers that they’ve got in market are really first rate – a very high quality offer, a high quality network.”

As part of the deal BP will replace Mobil as fuel supplier to the X Convenience network, where customers will be able to use BP’s fuel cards.

BP also sees an opportunity to use the X Convenience sites to accelerate the rollout of its electric vehicle chargers. It has so far installed more than 120 BP pulse charge points across its network of 1200 sites across the country.

“That’s already made a lot of progress in a number of states, and we’d be willing to do the same across South Australia,” she said.

“The X Convenience sites – a lot of them have a really big footprint that would be absolutely suitable for putting EV chargers on-site.”

X Convenience offers a range of in-store concepts in addition to fuel – all designed to generate a larger share of customer spend on products in-store. Picture: File

Like its bigger rival OTR, X Convenience offers a range of in-store concepts including Coffee Station, Smokes Express, Burger X and Down Dog ‘N Shakes – all designed to generate a larger share of customer spend on products in-store.

Ms Archbold said plans to expand the X Convenience brand to new sites would be considered as BP progressed towards completion of the deal in the coming months.

“X convenience is a really strong brand in South Australia so there’s certainly going to be no change to that branding in South Australia,” she said.

“Certainly we’re looking to retain the strength of the X Convenience offering, the strength of the X convenience brand in South Australia. Whether we extend that beyond South Australia into our other sites is something that we’ll continue to look at.”

Viva’s acquisition of OTR and its 226 stores required some negotiation with the ACCC but it was eventually sealed when Viva agreed to sell 25 of its sites in South Australia to Chevron. It received 13 Chevron sites in other states in return.

Ms Archbold would not comment on whether BP was prepared to relinquish sites in South Australia to get the deal over the line.

X Convenience director Steven Kosmidis said he was excited for the “next chapter of the business as BP continues to build the X Convenience network and delivering for our customers”.