United front in fuel war

Petrol retailer to open second site in city

UNITED Petroleum will open its second site in Cairns on Sheridan St next month.

The retailer shook up the Cairns fuel market when it opened a site at Woree earlier this month, selling unleaded petrol for 109.9 cents per litre and diesel for 108.9.

Despite initial resistance, prices have dropped by about two cents at some city fuel re- tailers to about 137.9.

United Petroleum marketing manager Andrew English confirmed the company would take control of the 230-238 Sheridan St site currently leased by BP on August 1.

A BP spokeswoman said “as of the end of July, our Cairns store will no longer be part of the BP network”.

Mr English said the facilities would be rebranded and refurbished over a week.

“We expect to have the site operating from August 7 should everything go well with the changeover,” he said.

“We want to assure all residents and visitors to Cairns that ... you can save money every day when you choose to fill up at United.”

There are plans to open more United Petroleum outlets in coming months but just how many could not be confirmed.

“We do plan to open more United sites in Cairns and the wider region in the very near future,” Mr English said.

“While, we’re not in a position to provide too much detail on those new sites just now, we are looking closely at a number of options, in the same way we have done in other nearby markets such as Townsville and Rockhampton.”

Mr English said United was “providing easy access to the most competitively priced fuels and conveniences when and where they’re needed” to a region that had been “paying very high prices for several years”.