Document text
�Little guy� gets shoved aside photo by Steve Johnson Ashland gas station operator squeezed out by big refiner By Sara Murphy ASHLAND � Ken Khosroabadi is being eighty-sixed from the 76. Khosroabadi, who owns a Union 76 service station near the south Ashland interchange, says he�s being forced out of business by Tosco Corp., the nation�s largest independent oil refiner and petroleum marketing company. Tosco, based in Old Greenwich, Conn., is apparently moving away from marketing its fuels � which include brands such as 76, BP, Exxon and Mobil � through mom-and-pop franchises in lieu of jobbers, companies that own their own tankers and dozens of stations. Khosroabadi watched it happen from his Ashland Street service station when a jobber-owned 76 station opened across the freeway, so close to his own that the new station�s sign is clearly visible from Khosroabadi�s lot. Laws prohibit same-brand stations from being so close to each other, and Khosroabadi, who bought his Ashland franchise in 1992, received notice in June that Tosco was terminating his contract. Tosco public relations officials, reached by telephone Wednesday, were not able to find anyone to comment on the case. Khosroabadi, whose 90-day termination notice expired Aug. 31, is waiting for the trademark orange ball to drop. "I�m waiting for them to tell me when I can move out," he says. "I don�t know when the end will be, maybe tomorrow, maybe two days." Khosroabadi speaks matter-of-factly, without the sense of desperation that might be expected of a man on the verge of bankruptcy; this isn�t the first station he has had to let go. First, Khosroabadi closed his franchise in Susanville, Calif., then the franchise in Portland. Last month, he closed his Crater Lake Highway station in Medford. "Losing Medford, that was one thing," Khosroabadi says. "But losing Ashland, what am I going to do? "My life is here, my kids are here." Ashland is his last franchise. He has contracts to operate three other stations in the Willamette Valley. Khosroabadi, a former champion wrestler in Iran, moved to the United States in �76, a number that would seem to pave the way to his American dream. "When I went to college, I worked at a gas station, 76," says Khosroabadi, who studied to be an aviation technician, but never found work. Instead, he kept pumping gas at the 76 station, working his way up to manager, eventually purchasing one franchise, then another. Now it seems Khosroabadi�s lucky number has expired. He�s looking at debt for service station equipment that probably won�t sell, putting his house on the market and wondering how to feed seven kids. "I�m basically going broke," Khosroabadi says. "They�re taking everything away from me. I don�t have enough money to fight the big oil companies." Khosroabadi and Tosco have exchanged lawsuits in federal court, but Khosroabadi isn�t optimistic about the outcome. He also fears Tosco will revoke his Willamette Valley contracts in retaliation. "I believe they will do everything they can to financially break me so I can�t win this case," he says. Khosroabadi�s not the only local gas dealer with a hard-luck story. Lonnie Leonard, a longtime 76-dealer in north Grants Pass, says he�s also about to lose his station. "I�ve been a dealer with them for 28 years," Leonard says. "Now they put a new station in right across the street. "My lease runs out the end of this year and they�re not going to renew it." Peter Gunst, an anti-trust attorney in Baltimore and general counsel for Service Station Dealers of America, says it�s not uncommon for the little guy to lose out when corporations merge or change marketing strategies. "Certainly this is a situation that has happened a lot in the franchise industry, not just with the service station owners," Gunst says. "The whole attitude toward the dealers has changed as a result of the mergers," he adds. "A lot of old relationships have been disturbed." After the BP-Amoco merger last year, Tosco began rebranding its BP stations in Oregon to 76. At the south Ashland interchange, where the BP across the freeway from Khosroabadi�s station became a 76, the name-swap put the two 76 stations in violation of the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act, which sets minimum distances between stations bearing the same brand. One of the stations had to go, and Khosroabadi, a small-time dealer without much pull, drew the short straw. In accordance with the petroleum marketing act, Tosco offered Leonard and Khosroabadi the chance to purchase their stations when the company terminated their contracts. Leonard, who also owns Caveman Towing in Grants Pass, decided to drop the gas business and to continue operating the tow company on his own site. Khosroabadi, whose gas-station services include towing and mechanical work, says he is interested in purchasing the Ashland property and starting a new franchise, but feels he�s been made an impossible offer: The third party that owns the property is willing to sell him the land if Tosco takes responsibility for cleaning up any contamination. Tosco won�t clean up the property � which Khosroabadi insists isn�t contaminated � without tearing out the station. Essentially, if Khosroabadi tries to buy the station, there won�t be a station left to buy. "I�m not asking for anything besides a fair chance," Khosroabadi says. "Give me a fair chance to stay here." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA