Crescent Oil files Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Some local gas stations affected by Crescent Oil’s recent bankruptcy filing are again accepting credit and debit card payments.

Crescent Oil, an Independence-based fuel supplier, filed Chapter 11 protection from creditors in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Kansas City on Saturday, according to the Associated Press. Before the filing, Crescent Oil distributed fuel to more than 340 locations in the midwest, including many in the Pittsburg area.

Many of those stations did not receive their regular fuel shipments last week and also had to stop accepting credit and debit card payments.

As of Monday afternoon, at least three local stations affected by Crescent Oil’s bankruptcy filing could again accept credit and debit cards.

Horton’s Pizza Plus, with locations in Arma and Pittsburg, as well as Pittsburg Truck N’ Travel have a new credit card system in place.

Kathy Rakestraw, Truck N’ Travel owner, said she purchased a new credit card machine and again accepts all major cards. However, at this time, the station cannot accept any gas cards.

Rakestraw said her business suffered during the few days it could not accept credit cards.

“It affected us a great deal,” she said. “Credit cards are about 85 percent of our business.”

As for fuel, Rakestraw said her station has switched to a new supplier and has not experienced any shortages.

Mike Horton, owner of Horton’s Pizza Plus, said his stations also are working with a different fuel supplier and again accept credit and debit cards, as well as Conoco-Phillips gas cards.

“Everything is pretty much back to normal right now,” he said.

Horton said not being able to accept credit cards caused somewhat of a lull in business last week at his Pittsburg store.

“I noticed it here more than I did in Arma,” he said. “There are so many stations here that weren’t affiliated with Crescent that people could go elsewhere. But in Arma, there are not as many places to choose from.”

For the most part, Horton said, customers were patient and understanding during the ordeal.

“It was nothing terrible,” he said. “People were pretty patient. Some of them actually were panicking, but we just had to talk to them and explain that this was nothing we did. I just told them it would take a few days to get everything figured out.”

Gorilla X-Press in Pittsburg, which was formerly owned by Crescent Oil, is accepting credit cards inside the store, but is still unable to accept pay-at-the-pump credit card payments.

Frontenacr’s in Frontenac and Mini-Stop in Girard, both affected by Crescent’s financial struggles, are still unable to accept credit card payments.

Kris Belew, co-owner of Frontenacr’s, said his station is working with a new fuel supplier and should be able to accept credit card payments “in a day or two.” He, like Horton, said customers have been generally patient during the past week.

“Everybody’s been pretty good about it,” he said. “They are going to an ATM at the bank if they have to.”

Crescent Oil said in court documents that it and its subsidiaries had a total of $85.3 million in assets and $88.8 million in liabilities at the time of its bankruptcy filing.

The past two years have been financially rough for the company, it said in the documents, with $12.8 million in estimated losses last year and $3.5 million in 2007. The 2008 losses, which came on $910 million in revenue, were blamed on “extremely volatile fuel prices and margins,” as well as more than $2 million in losses from acquiring and developing new convenience stores. The company said it also had to deal with high interest rates and financing costs.

The bankruptcy comes after several retailers in the Midwest last week reported not receiving regularly scheduled deliveries of fuel. Crescent refused to comment on the reports at the time.

Crescent distributes fuel to more than 340 locations in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Louisiana. The company is a wholesale supplier of Conoco-Phillips, Shell, Valero and British Petroleum gasoline.

It listed its largest unsecured creditors as fuel suppliers Shell, which is owed $6.8 million; Conoco-Phillips, which is owed $3.6 million; CHS Inc., which is owed $915,224; Apex Oil Co., which is owed $539,951; and Diamond-Valero, which is owed $452,406. Crescent also owes the Kansas Department of Revenue’s Motor Fuel Tax Section $4.3 million.

The company said it has 288 salaried and hourly employees, the majority of whom work in its convenience stores.

Crescent Oil, established in 1987, was bought last October by Richardson, Texas-based Titan Global Holdings Inc.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.