Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (CPCL)’s first retail outlet selling petrol and diesel opened recently at Nemam in Tiruvallur district without much fanfare. It is a dealer-operated outlet and is expected to soon have alternative fuels and battery charging stations. The company has branded its retail outlets as Sooper.
Sources said that in about 10 to 15 days, CPCL’s first COCO (company-owned, company-operated) outlet will be opened at Mathur. One more COCO outlet will come up on Ennore Road, closer to the Manali refinery.
“We have taken licenses to open a total of 300 outlets pan-India over a period of three years. Of these, around 40 will come up in Tamil Nadu, our home State. The company hopes to operationalise them by year end,” said a source.
The USP at all Sooper outlets will be the installation of vapour recovery systems that will keep the environment clean. “Our outlets will also focus on providing alternate fuels and e-vehicle charging facilities. Based on the needs of motorists, we also want to retail specialised fuels at select outlets. We turned 60 last year and during the celebrations, we took the decision to get into retailing. We are happy that it has fructified so soon.”
