Viva Energy and Coles Express open new station for freeway and Port of Melbourne users
Victoria’s West Gate Freeway has a new service station after Viva Energy Australia and Coles Express announced the opening of a $10 million facility at the Cook St exit.
Designed to accommodate the trucking industry with its proximity to the Port of Melbourne and the freeway, the Shell Coles Express West Gate Freeway site includes a dedicated diesel forecourt with four truck filling positions fitted with ultra-high flow pumps.
While also catering to everyday motorists with 12 standard filling stations, the facility features AdBlue at the pump, a 5.2m canopy height, and a mix of food retail outlets.
“This site is perfectly positioned to service the trucking industry, local residents and general commuters and Viva Energy is pleased to have taken on a 15-year prime term lease,” Viva Energy general manager sales Daniel Ridgway says.
The new site, which opens business to the 170,000 motorists who commute on the freeway each day, is the eighth Shell Coles Express site to be opened in Victoria during 2015.
“These eight new sites are strategically located to service demand across Melbourne and together they have added 85M litres of fuel into the Shell Coles Express network,” Ridgway says.
“This is great news for our Geelong Refinery as every litre of fuel we sell in Victoria helps support local manufacturing,” he says.
The result of Vitol’s acquisition of Shell’s Australian downstream business last year, Viva Energy is also growing nationally, Ridgway says.
“We’re focused on growth and nationally in 2015 we have opened 24 new service stations operated by Coles Express and signed 19 dealer owned sites into the network and we expect to exceed this number in 2016,” he says.
Constructed by a local firm, the new site will provide over 20 ongoing positions from sub-tenancies.