California-based E85 distributor Pearson Fuels opened its 150th retail site offering the high-ethanol flex-fuel blend and aims to open another 50 within the coming year, company co-founder Mike Lewis said on Friday.
The 150th location opened in Victorville, Calif., on Thursday. The milestone
opening came just one year and six days after Pearson Fuels opened its 100th retail site in Glendale. Lewis said the company currently has another 66 retail sites under contract in permitting and construction, with a high likelihood that the 200th location will open within the next year.
“It is exciting for us to get to 150 sites so quickly after celebrating 100,”
Lewis said. “I remember when it took me about three years to build the first 11 sites, and now, we open about one a week.”
Lewis noted that Pearson Fuels also supplies many government locations beyond the 150 commercial sites available to the public.
Pearson Fuels does not own the retail stations but works to assist retailers to get into the E85 business in exchange for a long-term contract, Lewis said.
Most stations sell more E85 than they sell mid-grade or premium-blend gasoline, Lewis said, and many sites are a result of converting underperforming diesel tanks. Lewis also noted than much of the fuel being delivering to the new stations is Pearson Fuels’ new blend using renewable naphtha, which is very close to a 100% renewable blend.
“Customers seem to love all these new sites,” Lewis said. “The No. 1 comment we get on social media is, ‘When are you going to open one in my area, or closer to my house?'”
–Jordan Godwin, jgodwin@opisnet.com