About The Author
I received my Bachelor of Science in Business from the University of Oregon in 1979. I immediately went to work for the JC Penney Company as a management trainee and spent seventeen years with them. It was a good company to work for and they taught me about business, marketing, retailing and how to win/keep customers.
Although retail management treated me well, I realized that I wouldn’t always be satisfied working as an employee and that someday I wanted to be my own boss and open my own business. In 1996 that opportunity came. I knew a few people working in the fuel business and they were very happy working as independent gas dealers. What was just as exciting to me was that I would be able to build my own gas station and car wash. After quite a bit of investigative work, I decided on a piece of property in Damascus, Oregon. In April of 1996 construction was completed and I opened a Texaco branded station. I worked my tail off that first year building the business. I had a lot of 15-hour days, but the business was mine and I wouldn’t have passed it up for anything. I met many great people in Clackamas County and my family and I became part of the community.
I had several successful years in Damascus, but in 1998 things began to change as Shell and Texaco formed a joint venture called Equilon Enterprises where Shell became the majority owner. Over the months, I noticed that in order to remain competitive with all brands including Texaco branded stations, my margin was getting smaller and smaller.
As a gas station owner you make your profit from two key things – Volume and Margin. Big oil companies also make their profit from volume and margin. Why was my price from Equilon, a subsidiary of the Shell-Texaco alliance making it harder for me to compete? A number of letters and phone calls were made to company personnel, but nobody would answer my questions about pricing discrepancies. Several local dealers decided to seek legal counsel and after much thought, we pursued legal action. Two years went by and we finally reached a settlement with Equilon. These two years were a very troubling time in my and my family’s life.
People ask me if we won the suit. I tell them "No, we didn’t win, but we did not lose either." I had to sell my business because of Equilon’s pricing practices, but I did learn a great deal about how oil companies think and operate, particularly Texaco and Shell. The product of my experiences and research is written in my book, The Truth Behind High Fuel Prices: What Oil Companies Do Not Want You to Know!
Sincerely,
Richard Clough
Let's work together to bring down the cost of fuel!