A.T. Williams Oil Co.

A.T. Williams Oil Co. is an oil distribution company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was started by Arthur T. Williams Sr. in 1963.

Arthur T. Williams worked for his father-in-law at Taylor Oil Company before starting his own company in 1963 with six full-service gas stations. In the late 1960s and early 1970s Williams added self service, eventually switching entirely to self-service because that was 95 percent of sales. Convenience stores were added in the 1980s, and by 1982 Williams had 67 locations. Diesel bays were first added in 1988 in Suffolk, Virginia, and in 1990 a travel plaza with facilities for truck drivers was added at Raphine, Virginia.[1]

In 1999, Williams had 130 Wilco stations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia. The company bought eight Exxon stations in the Winston-Salem area.[2]

In 2001, a joint venture began between A.T. Williams and Amerada Hess, now Hess Corporation.[3] At the time, Williams had 120 gas stations and 21 travel centers, and had expanded to Pennsylvania and Alabama. Hess had supplied Williams for 35 years. Steve Williams would be president of WilcoHess.[4] On October 23, 2003, WilcoHess announced it acquired 50 Servco stations in North Carolina from Service Distributing Co. Inc. of Albemarle, North Carolina, which was getting out of the business. WilcoHess had 155 stores and 38 restaurants and plans for a travel center in Tennessee.[5]

In 2013, though it was leaving the business, Hess bought the remaining 56 percent interest in WilcoHess LLC, which had 353 convenience stores and 37 travel plazas in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.[6]

In September 2014, it along with the rest of the Hess gas chain was acquired by Speedway LLC in a $2.82 billion deal. Over 1200 WilcoHess stores began converting to Speedway in October 2014. The last changes began in the Southeast on September 28, 2015.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Trade Mart Merges With WilcoHess". WITN. June 2, 2005. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  2. ↑ Sturiale, Jeanne (April 2, 1999). "Speedway conversion of Triad WilcoHess stores under way". Winston-Salem Journal. p. D1.
  3. 1 2 Craver, Richard (September 28, 2015). "Speedway conversion of Triad WilcoHess stores under way". Winston-Salem Journal. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  4. ↑ Swartz, Kristi E. (October 13, 2000). "2 Oil Companies Discuss act". Winston-Salem Journal. p. D2.
  5. ↑ "WilcoHess to Take Over 50 Servco Gasoline Stores". Winston-Salem Journal. October 24, 2003. p. D1.
  6. ↑ "Hess Will Acquire Rest of WilcoHess". CSPnet. June 12, 2013. Retrieved October 13, 2015.

External links


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