Sohio/Boron

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Anyone who grew up in Ohio remembers Sohio (Standard Oil of Ohio), they were the successor to John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company, which broke up in 1911. Sohio was known by the name Boron outside of Ohio. Boron had locations in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Boron was also the name of Sohio/Boron's premium grade gasoline. By 1980, Sohio and Boron had 3,400 gas stations. Following Chevron's takeover of Gulf in the 1980s, Sohio/Boron acquired 5,660 former Gulf service stations in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Sohio was allowed to use the "Gulf" name for five years after the acquisition. BP took majority ownership of Sohio and Boron in 1978 when the benchmark was obtained. In 1987, when all other Standard Oil descendants minimized the use of the "Standard" name, Standard Oil of Ohio, proud to be the original, sought to corporately rebrand itself under the "Standard" name while continuing to use the "Sohio" brand and others to sell products in the state of Ohio. However, later that year, BP bought the 45% share of Sohio it did not own and assumed control. Among the first changes, was the rebranding of Sohio and Boron to BP in 1991. Sohio used the colors red/white/blue/silver in its gas station designs up until the early 1990s when they were converting all Sohio and Boron stations into BP stations. For a brief period of time when Sohio and Boron gas stations were transitioning into becoming BP gas stations in 1990, Sohio and Boron used BP's color scheme of green/yellow/silver with the "Sohio/Boron Oval" logo until all Sohio and Boron locations were rebranded BP with the "BP Shield" replacing the "Sohio/Boron Oval".


Sohio was allowed to use the Gulf name in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina for five years following a $1 billion acquisition.


Sohio and Boron became BP in 1991.

[Hudsons81]

As of 1977, there was a Boron station that was at the northeast corner of Fort Street (M-85) and Pennsylvania Road in Southgate, Michigan, on the exact same lot where a recently-renovated Tim Horton's currently is. I don't know if that one ever survived long enough to be converted into BP.

[jason83080]

Wow, so it was Sohio that came up with those gray-paneled buildings for everything? I thought that those were always a BP thing.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Wow, so it was Sohio that came up with those gray-paneled buildings for everything? I thought that those were always a BP thing.

BP owned Sohio and Boron from the 1960s to 1990s, so the design was used on Sohio, Boron, and a select number of Sohio-owned Gulf stations in the south during the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Early on, Sohio/Boron/Gulf used a "SOHIO" blue/silver pump canopy design with red neon underscoring the SOHIO, BORON, or Gulf wordmark, just like how BP used yellow neon lights on their "BP" green/silver canopies, where the neon light underscores the BP initials on the rounded side of the canopy. But unlike the Sohio and Boron canopies, BP put the word "Welcome" in yellow Italic letters on the flat side of their canopies, which they did in different foreign languages outside of the English-speaking countries. Sohio/Boron was located mostly in Ohio and the states surrounding it at the time, while BP was found mostly on the West Coast and East Coast

[TheFugitive]

They were Boron stations here in Pennsylvania, and if you drove about a half-hour west
into Ohio they magically became Sohio stations.

In the winter whenever very cold temperatures were predicted they would buy these
radio ads with the most jarring, nerve-wracking sounder you've ever heard.

DUH-DE-DA-DUT-DUT-DEE-DUH-DAH-DAH-DUHDUHDUHDUHDUHDUHDUHDUH!!!!!!

"Tonight's Boron temperature forecast, minus five.  Fill-up now with Boron containing IceGard.
No fuel line freeze-up or Boron pays your tow".

Runs right through my spine all these years later.

[Hudsons81]

I still remember when Boron stations were found across Metro Detroit (including the aforementioned Southgate loction) and I also still remember heading south on I-75, US 24 (Telegraph Road) or US 23, you would be passing Boron stations and as soon as you crossed into Toledo, Ohio; these same stations suddenly turned into Sohio stations.

[TheFugitive]

This was the radio ad that they'd run when cold weather was predicted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVOJ2RqNYzg

Yikes! That sounder would catch you off-guard and send you out of your chair!

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

My "what if" for the SOHIO brand in an alternate reality:

If Sohio expanded into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa, I think they would have operated their gas stations under the "CETRON" name, and if they expanded into  New York, New Jersey, and New England, they would probably have operated their gas stations under the "OCTRON" name, just a wild guess of what names they could have used for those regions, if they would use the same naming scheme that was used already by SOHIO, where they drew some inspirations from the name of the fuel SOHIO sells. Each name would be lodged into the SOHIO oval logo, in a similar fashion to Boron, for their selected regions. SOHIO would use the "Gulf" brand in the southern United States upon the acquisition of 5000+ stores from Chevron. I don't think they would use the "EXTRON" name because it could easily be confused with the Exxon name.

Slogans for the gas station chain's regions:
* Ohio: "You go, or SOHIO pays the tow."
* Lower Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia: "You go, or BORON pays the tow."
* Upper Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois: "You go, or CETRON pays the tow."
* New York, New Jersey, and New England: "You go, or OCTRON pays the tow."
* Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, and the Carolinas: "You go, or Gulf pays the tow."

[TheFugitive]

Offering to pay the tow on the Upper Peninsula would be a pure money-loser.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Offering to pay the tow on the Upper Peninsula would be a pure money-loser.

How do you know that? Boron worked in the Lower Peninsula.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

I found a 1989 news story about the Sohio-Boron-Gulf/BP transition: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXDAdcrZcGg

[retailisking]

I found a 1989 news story about the Sohio-Boron-Gulf/BP transition: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXDAdcrZcGg

Note the sign at :20 indicating how many banners BP was operating at the time. We had Gibbs in New England in addition to Gulf. Gulf was eventually sold to Cumberland Farms, and Gibbs went unbranded. Cumbys sold Gulf a couple of years ago.

[BillyGr]

Note the sign at :20 indicating how many banners BP was operating at the time. We had Gibbs in New England in addition to Gulf. Gulf was eventually sold to Cumberland Farms, and Gibbs went unbranded. Cumbys sold Gulf a couple of years ago.

This may be a leftover offshoot from the original company (as the sign looks familiar to ones that used to be in other parts of MA, including those closer to the NY state line)?

Maybe areas where there were older/smaller stations (I know I saw one of the 3 ME locations and that one fits this category, the old building between the pumps type of station) or areas they had too many or too few for BP to be interested in staying?

http://gibbsoil.com/location.htm

[retailisking]

This may be a leftover offshoot from the original company (as the sign looks familiar to ones that used to be in other parts of MA, including those closer to the NY state line)?

Maybe areas where there were older/smaller stations (I know I saw one of the 3 ME locations and that one fits this category, the old building between the pumps type of station) or areas they had too many or too few for BP to be interested in staying?

http://gibbsoil.com/location.htm

As I understand it the BPGibbs stations were a joint venture until they went their separate ways.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Most of the Gulf stations that were owned by BP in the South are now BP or a competing brand.

BP also carried Mobil lubricants for a short period of time. BP merged with Amoco sometime after the Mobil lubricants partnership ended in 1998. BPAmoco currently owns BP, Amoco, Castrol and ARCO.

Exxon merged with Mobil to form ExxonMobil in 2000. ExxonMobil owns Exxon and Mobil in the United States and other parts of the world, and Esso in Canada.

Chevron merged with Texaco to form ChevronTexaco. ChevronTexaco owns Chevron and Texaco in United States, Texaco in parts of Europe and Caltex in other parts of the world.

Conoco merged with Phillips to form ConocoPhillips, owner of Conoco, Phillips 66 and Union 76.