Trading name Coles Express Industry Automotive and retail Revenue 6.7 billion AUD (2016) Founded July 2003 | Type Subsidiary Headquarters Melbourne, Australia Number of locations 642 Parent organizations Coles Group, Wesfarmers | |
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Key people Alister Jordan
Director
(Convenience & Fuel at Coles) Products Petrol, convenience and grocery Website www.colesexpress.com.au | ||
Eureka Operations Pty Ltd (trading as Coles Express) is an Australian chain of convenience stores at Shell Australia petrol stations. Its operations are managed by Coles.
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The business venture and corresponding fuel discount offer was launched in July 2003 in response to the similar offer by rival Woolworths Limited some years earlier, proving attractive to shoppers.
Coles Myer purchased the retail business of Shell Australia multi-site franchisees in 2003 for A$94 million. Shell is the exclusive supplier of fuel products, leases the service station property to Coles, and maintains the presence of the "pecten" and other Shell branding on the price board and other signage.
Approximately 270 independently franchised Shell service stations, remain unassociated with Coles Express and where the fuel discount offer is not accepted.
Despite revenue for FY16 decreasing, Wesfarmers stated that excluding fuel sales (which have declined), in-store sales increased.
History
The Coles Express brand originally referred to a small number of medium-sized supermarkets Coles ran in the central business districts of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. With the launch of Coles' fuel offer, these were rebranded Coles Central.
The current Coles Express chain began at more than 150 service stations in Victoria on 28 July 2003. After this initial trial, it was followed by a national roll-out from 1 December the same year, starting with New South Wales, and completed in mid-2004. The initial success of the discount offer saw fuel shortages in Victoria after the offer began in New South Wales – where Shell's busiest sites are located – as Shell failed to cope with the distribution of a 30 percent increase in demand.
There are now 666 Coles Express service stations across Australia. All former Shell multi-site franchisee sites became Coles Express stores. This transition included the petrol stations and stand-alone Shell Select convenience stores in Melbourne's CBD (which closed by December 2006).
On 20 February 2006, 90 vehicle servicing bays at Coles Express service stations (formerly part of Shell's Autoserv and AutoCare network) became Kmart Tyre and Auto Service outlets.
The Coles and Shell alliance
The Coles and Shell commercial alliance involves:
Coles:
Shell Australia:
Everyday offer
When a customer spends over a qualifying amount (typically $30) in one transaction at Coles Supermarkets, Bi-Lo, Coles Central, Pick 'n Pay Hypermarkets or at Coles Online, they are entitled to a fuel discount of 4c per litre off the bowser price at Coles Express service stations. This discount is obtained by providing a discount voucher, printed at the bottom of their receipt, and includes all of Shell's "quality fuels" such as V-Power, E10 and LPG.
On 7 June 2007, Kmart joined the 4c fuel discount offer, only as a "limited time" until 1 August when it became permanent. This offer does not include Kmart Tyre and Auto Service transactions. Kmart eventually pulled out of the 4c fuel discount offer in July 2010.
The discount offer does not apply to Shell Card, Fleet Card, Motorpass or Motorcharge transactions.
Bonus offers
An additional "bonus" discount was introduced in late 2006, with a further 2c per litre fuel discount when customers spend $2 in-store in the one transaction. The offer was made permanent in April 2007 after rival Caltex Woolworths created a similar offer of an additional 4c discount if customers spend $5 in the one transaction at their petrol stations. The 2c per litre finished on 1 February 2013. Coles Express now offers a "Spend $20 and Save 10 cents per litre" this was launched to an "Everyday" offer in late 2015 and has continued since, variations of this deal are offered occasionally e.g. Buy product X for X dollars and save X cents per litre.
Other variations of the fuel offer have been offered from time to time including:
In 2016 Victoria joined New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia imposing laws against falsely advertising the discounted price on petrol boards, this followed on from a 2013 ACCC ruling on fuel discounting on Woolworths' and Coles Express' fuel discounting practices.