Four Rivers Co-op is expanding its reach into the fuel tanks of Prince George motorists.
The Vanderhoof-based company has purchased 10 retail fuel stations in northern B.C. as part of a decision by its parent company, Federation Co-operative Ltd., to buy 171 Husky retail sites in Western Canada and Ontario from Cenovus Energy.
Three of those corporately owned Husky filling stations soon to be rebranded as Co-op stations are in Prince George - at 1746 John Hart Highway, 835 Central St West, and 2511 Range Rd. The rebranding transformation will begin in January and is expected to be complete by March.
“It’s planned for one station at a time, so we will go to one of the stations, shut it down for a week then when we reopen anywhere five to eight days later it will have the Co-op look – street signs, the canopies, the pump handles and the inside of the store - and we’ll put in our point-of-sale system,” said Four Rivers Co-op general manager Allan Bieganski.
Four Rivers opened its first retail fuel site in Prince George in February 2018 along Highway 16 West at 6749 Westgate Ave. It also operates cardlock facilities at Hart Highway and BCR Industrial Site locations.
The other seven Husky station locations Four Rivers is taking over are in Williams Lake (two), Kitimat, Terrace, Burns Lake, Quesnel and 100 Mile House. Co-op will also assume Husky’s fuel supply contracts at two dealer-owned sites in Prince George.
The Husky stations will continue to operate with no visible changes to customers until they are rebranded as Co-op fuel stations. Customers will continue to accumulate and redeem points in the Husky Rewards program on all applicable transactions and Husky gift cards will continue to be honoured until the stations re-open as Co-op.
People who join Four Rivers Co-op and purchase a $10 investment share to obtain personal membership numbers receive annual patronage rebates based on the profits of the company, but memberships won’t apply for eligible purchases at Husky stations until the stores are rebranded.
Four River revenues recovered significantly in 2021 to $258.9 million, after a tough pandemic year in 2020, and Bieganski says Four Rivers is well on its way to a record year. With fuel prices at unprecedented levels through most of 2022 he says the company expects revenues will be close to $320 million and the allocation rates for members will reflect that.
In 2021, Four Rivers’ return rate for petroleum fuel/ propane was 4.35 per cent, oil/lubricants 5 per cent, convenience store/food/agro centres was 3.15 per cent and fertilizer was 1.25 per cent. The company invested $187,700 into the community and supported 80 community groups while employing 200 people at its 21 locations.
Four Rivers has operated a grocery store in Vanderhoof since the company formed in 1944 and Bieganski says he regularly gets asked if there are plans for Co-op to open a food store in Prince George. That speculation started to increase in February 2021 when Save-On Foods announced its plan to close its Parkwood Mall location and relocate to a new store being built at Pine Centre Mall.
Then on Monday, city council passed third reading of a rezoning amendment to allow Brink Properties Inc., to proceed with its Nechako Corners commercial development, which will include a 30,000 square-foot grocery store.
Four Rivers looked into getting into the Prince George retail food market soon after it opened the filling station/car wash at Westgate and the company commissioned a market feasibility study two years ago, which advised against it.
“Based on that study, we determined Prince George was already overstored and we were concerned about diluting the business and not getting an appropriate payback to make it pay for the membership,” said Bieganski.
“We looked at all the statistics, all the other stores, and what the food volume should be, it’s a very detailed informed study and we said we don’t think there room to crack that market. In this case, what the projection on food sales were and what the sores were capturing was almost 100 per cent. So we thought, how are we going to take our market share without getting into a price war and making it a profitable venture in the longterm.”
He also said it’s costly to build a food store from scratch, and it would have to be significantly larger than the Four Rivers supermarket in Vanderhoof.
“It will be interesting to see what plays out and maybe we need to revisit that study or commission a new one,” Bieganski. ”I’ve learned to never say never.”
Four Rivers now has 31 retail locations, including its food store and hardware store in Vanderhoof, agricultural supply centres in Vanderhoof and Quesnel, 15 cardlocks and 12 retail filling stations.
