Sunoco and McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada have established a test partnership they hope will help gasoline sales and make the restaurant viable in a small Ontario community.
The take-out restaurant in Gloucester, Ont, which opened at the end of September, represents one of only a few such partnerships for McDonald’s in Canada.
The gas station helped McDonald’s secure a presence in the community that normally would not be able to sustain a complete restaurant.
Sunoco has already established a similar partnership with Baker’s Dozen Donuts at two other Ontario locations, and is in negotiations with other chains to establish similar restaurant-gas station alliances.
‘We don’t have the skills, training schools and programs to be able to compete in that type of environment,’ says Vince Hupe, Sunoco’s merchandising manager.
‘So, rather than doing all that ourselves, we elected to use someone specialized that will be able to deliver quality and service that can compete,’ Hupe says.
Hupe says the partnership has been promoted so far only by signs that indicate the presence of McDonald’s on the site.
He says future promotions will be done co-operatively.
Sunoco has about 500 gas stations in Ontario and Quebec, 400 of which are branded Sunoco, with the rest under different names.
McDonald’s has a similar relationship with a small number of Esso gas stations.
