Reddy Express — BrandWiki

Reddy Express

trade name	Reddy Express Coles Express (currently phasing out)
type	Subsidiary
foundation	July 28, 2003
location city	Hawthorn East, Melbourne
location country	Australia
key people	Jevan Bouz (CEO)
locations	723
num locations year	2022
parent	Coles Myer (2003–2007) Wesfarmers (2007–2018) Coles Group (2018–2023) Viva Energy (2023–present)
industry	Automotive and retail
products	Petrol, convenience and grocery
revenue	$1.1 billion
revenue year	2022
net income	$42 million
net income year	2022
num employees	4,800
num employees year	2022
homepage	reddyexpress.com.au

Reddy Express, formerly Coles Express, is an Australian chain of convenience stores at Shell Australia petrol stations. Until it came under the ownership of Viva Energy in May 2023,[1] Coles Express was a trading name of Coles Group.[2] In September 2023, Coles Express was renamed Reddy Express.

The business venture and corresponding fuel discount offer was launched by Coles Myer (predecessor of Coles Group) on 28 July 2003 in response to a similar offer by rival Woolworths some years earlier, which proved attractive to shoppers. Coles Myer purchased the retail business of Shell Australia's multi-site franchisees for $94 million.[3] Shell Australia (later also sold to Viva Energy) continues to be the exclusive supplier of fuel products; leasing the service station property to Coles, and maintaining the presence of the "pecten" and other Shell branding on the price boards and other signage. The reasoning behind the term “Reddy”, which is a stylised version of the word "ready", is due to the stores' convenience-based nature.

History

The Coles Express brand originally referred to a small number of medium-sized supermarkets Coles ran in the central business districts of Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. With the launch of Coles' fuel offer, these were rebranded as Coles Central with the service stations taking the Coles Express branding.

The Coles Express chain began at more than 150 service stations in Victoria on 28 July 2003.[4] After this initial trial, it was followed by a national roll-out from 1 December the same year, starting with New South Wales, and completed in mid-2004. The initial success of the discount offer saw fuel shortages in Victoria after the offer began in New South Wales – where Shell's busiest sites are located – as Shell failed to cope with the distribution of a 30 percent increase in demand.[5]

On 20 February 2006, 90 vehicle servicing bays at Coles Express service stations (formerly part of Shell's Autoserv and AutoCare network) became Kmart Tyre & Auto Service outlets.[6]

Coles and Viva Energy alliance

On 6 February 2019 Coles Express announced a new alliance partnership with their fuel partner Viva Energy which is licensed to retail Shell-branded fuels across Australia under a licence agreement. Under the agreement Viva Energy is responsible for setting the price of fuel and receives the retail fuel margin. Coles Express receives a commission per litre from Viva Energy based on fuel volumes achieved and has no direct exposure to retail fuel price movements.[7]

In addition to setting fuel pricing Viva Energy is the exclusive supplier of fuel, oil and lubricants. Viva also maintains it pecten and Shell branding as well as all fuel dispensing equipment. Coles Express is responsible for the maintenance of the retail store (including in-store pricing) and the everyday needs of the business.

As of July 2021, there were 723 Coles Express service stations and stand-alone convenience sites across Australia.[8] All former Shell multi-site franchisee sites became Coles Express stores. This transition included the petrol stations and stand-alone Shell Select convenience stores in Melbourne's CBD (which closed by December 2006).

Sale to Viva Energy

In September 2022 Coles Group announced it had agreed terms with Viva Energy to sell the Coles Express retail business. As part of the deal Flybuys will remain a partner and Coles will continue stocking its own-branded products.[9][10][11] The acquisition was completed on 1 May 2023.[12] During 2023 Viva Energy entered into an agreement with the owners of more than 200 OTR-branded petrol stations to acquire the fuel and convenience store marketing rights at all OTR-branded outlets in South Australia and elsewhere. As part of Viva's acquisition of the OTR-branded retail sites of Peregrine Corporation, Viva was required to divest 25 of its Coles Express convenience stores in South Australia.[13] Viva divested those stores to Chevron