Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Say goodbye to those familiar green & white NOCO gas stations and convenience stores. Marathon Petroleum Corporation has acquired all 37 Noco properties in Western New York. Soon all will be re-branded under Marathon's Speedway name.
The Newman family has owned NOCO since the early 1960's. Co-owner Michael Newman tells Business First it's bittersweet, but it's getting tougher to compete with the larger national chains.
Elizabeth Carey with the Triple A of Western and Central New York tells WBEN, this marks the end of local stations around the area. "It's very rare to see those local stations where you used to see someone out there actually washing your windshield and that sort of thing. We love to support the NOCO brand – the local family in WNY - so a lot of AAA members do go there cause you can swipe your card and get a discount, so we will miss that. But on the bright side, AAA also has a discount with Speedway because we do that in Rochester so hopefully that discount will continue for local members who like to swipe the card and save at the pump”.
Terms were not disclosed, and the deal is expected to close by late Spring.
The NOCO name will not disappear. The company will continue to operate its wholesale fuel distribution network along with heating oil, propane sales, gas supply and other divisions.
in 2015, Marathon Petroleum bought out Hess gas and retail stations across the Northeast for $2.82 billion dollars.