Spencer Chemical

Company History: After the Second World War, with help from J.H. Whitney & Company, Kenneth Spencer entered into a lease with an option to buy (which he did in 1951) an ammonia nitrate plant that had been built by the War Department. The goal was to use the ammonia nitrate as fertilizer under the new name of Spencer Chemical. Spencer also succeeded his father as head of the Pittsburg and Midway, a company that was so successful that Spencer was able to use the profits to endow a foundation by 1949. Spencer Chemical would go on to buy plants in Calumet City, Illinois; Henderson, Kentucky; Vicksburg, Mississippi; Fort Worth, Texas and Orange, Texas.

Gulf bought the Spencer Chemical Company, liquidated by the Spencer Foundation, in 1964. After the Gulf purchase Spencer Chemical Corporation name disappeared.

Successor/Parent History: When the company that was to be known as Gulf was born in 1901 with an oil discovery in Spindletop, Texas, the primary commercial fuel was coal. By 1903, the age of mechanization had arrived and it was now up to the petroleum industry to keep pace, for the age could not proceed without it. Gasoline development, into which Gulf invested millions of dollars, responded to advances in automotive technology to make the modern motorcar possible. Within a dozen years of Spindletop, Gulf scored notable firsts with the world?s first drive-in service station, complimentary Gulf road maps and over water drilling at Ferry Lake. In 1917, the Gulfstream went into World War I service, along with the rest of Gulf's tanker fleet.

Gulf Oil, now headquartered in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts was purchased by ArcLight Capital Partners, LLC, an industry leading Private Equity Sponsor, and has since merged with Petroleum Products Corporation. With an extensive distribution network, the company supplies motor fuels through 17 owned and operated terminals and more than 1,800 Gulf branded gas stations and service stations, as well as heating oil, diesel fuel, jet fuel and kerosene, across the East and Gulf Coasts. Through its highly diversified assets and experienced management team, Gulf plans to expand its footprint throughout the Gulf Coast and eventually through North America.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.