He worked for his father and uncle’s company (originally Smith’s grandfather’s company), Smith Lighterage Company, which provided tug and barge services. “Vitus has been growing since inception but is just getting more visible with opening the Anchorage locations,” says Smith.īorn in Oregon while his father was attending law school, Smith grew up in Aleknagik, inland from Dillingham. Both midtown locations offer fuel and convenience store items, and the Northern Lights shop came with a liquor license. When the time came for Vitus Energy to expand into the state’s largest population center, “Two legacy properties provided an economical starting point for urban expansion,” Smith explains. “Purchasing these legacy stations allows the previous owner a way out and puts us into an existing facility that we can reinvest in.” “These two stations were struggling and needed a lot of reinvestment, and the owners decided that instead of reinvesting they would sell the locations,” Smith says. That gives the old owners good value and comes with an existing base of customers. The company’s overall strategy is that instead of building new stations and competing with older stations, it picks up older stations and renovates them. “We have eight stores in what I call the road system and four stores in Western Alaska,” says co-founder and CEO Mark Smith. Though the company is a newcomer to Anchorage drivers gassing up their cars and trucks, Vitus Energy is no stranger to retail fuel after steadily growing through a decade of wholesaling. Yet here is Vitus Energy at Tudor Road and Arctic Boulevard, as of January, and then at Northern Lights Boulevard and Minnesota Drive in March-far from shore.
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