Liberty Oil deal leaves queries

By KARYN SCHERER

Australia's largest independent petrol retailer has settled a dispute with two Wellington businessmen over its much-delayed plans to set up a chain of petrol stations in this country.

Cut-price retailer Liberty Oil is understood to have reached an agreement with Damba Holdings executives Simon Wallace and Stephen Bryant following mediation, averting a potentially damaging court case.

However, it is not yet clear whether Liberty still has plans to enter the New Zealand petrol market.

Mr Wallace and Mr Bryant approached Liberty Oil more than three years ago about the possibility of setting up a joint venture in New Zealand.

The pair claim to have spent around $1 million on the project, including briefing Liberty on New Zealand's business environment and gaining resource consents for storage tanks in Wellington and Tauranga.

Their proposal would have seen furniture-maker Damba Holdings running the "commercial" side of the fuel business, with Liberty running the retail operations.

However, the deal never went ahead and the pair claimed this year that Liberty had decided to go it alone once it had the information it needed.

Mr Wallace confirmed yesterday that the dispute had been settled by mediation. He refused to comment further.

The general manager of Liberty Oil in Australia, Mark Kevin, did not return the Business Herald's calls.

The Melbourne-based company predicted three years ago that it would have 35 petrol stations on this side of the Tasman by April 1998. Continuing delays forced it to amend the date to April 1999.

In February this year, it insisted it was still planning to launch in Auckland by the end of the year.

At one stage, the company was rumoured to be talking to arch-rival Gull Petroleum about a possible partnership.

Local Gull spokesman Ulrik Olsen said yesterday that he would be surprised if the chain was still planning an assault on the New Zealand market.

Among other issues, Gull had nabbed Liberty's property consultant in this country, said Mr Olsen.

"I wouldn't think so, not now. But you never know what they might do."

Since announcing its plans three years ago, Liberty has been beaten in the race to set up a new chain of petrol outlets by both Fletcher Challenge and Gull.

Fletcher Challenge's chain, Challenge!, now has 100 outlets including 20 truck stops. Gull has nine stations and plans to open three more outlets over the next six weeks.