Evolution Fuels inks deal with CarterEnergy - Willie's Place auto fuel island to offer Exxon brand

CarterEnergy, a fuel services headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, provides fuel distribution, site development and fuel transportation services to its customers.

A leader in the marketing and distribution of transportation fuels, CarterEnergy distributes 141 different energy products within the Midwest and Gulf regions. It also provides fleet and commercial fueling services in and around the Kansas City metropolitan area, and operates a fleet of transports in four major metropolitan markets.

The truckstop, of which Evolution Fuels owns a membership interest, features 12 diesel/biodiesel fueling lanes for tractor-trailers plus a wide-load island. There is a separate fueling island for cars and trucks.

In addition to the truckstop fueling facilities, Willie's Place at Carl's Corner features two restaurants, a convenience store, a saloon, a gift shop featuring official Willie Nelson merchandise and memorabilia and the 500 seat Night Life theater that features regular live music performances.

Since the opening of the facility in December 2009, the truckstop has demonstrated significant improvement with respect to financial performance. The improvements are due mostly to increased fuel sales concurrent with decreased operational expenses, the company said. Management expects performance to continue to improve as fuel volumes continue to increase, it added.

The company also recently said that it has initiated the required permitting process for construction of its first fuel station in Dallas. It will serve as the first "marquee" location for the company's planned rollout of its branded stations, it said. Evolution Fuels plans to uniquely image the station and offer specialty foods, beverages and other products in order to help create a recognizable brand as it rolls out additional stations.

Dallas-based Evolution Fuels endeavors to market renewable transportation fuels at retail fuel stations that will provide superior quality fuels to competing fuel stations by virtue of the blending capability within the fuel dispensers at its stations and offering the blends at competitive prices. The stations will offer ethanol/gasoline blends of fuel including 10% ethanol/90% gasoline (E10), 20% ethanol/80% gasoline (E20), 30% ethanol/70% gasoline (E30) and 85% ethanol/15% gasoline (E85). The latter three blends are intended for flex-fuel vehicles, although recent studies have shown that many legacy vehicles on the road today may use E20 and E30 blends without incurring damage to the engines or fuel systems.

The company's plan calls for the development of a chain of renewable fuel stations in the southwestern and southeastern United States that will be a combination of Evolution Fuels-branded fuel stations/c-stores and western-motif truck-stops modeled after Willie's Place Truck Stop in Carl's Corner, Texas.