Driving into the future – Bob Espey, Parkland Corporation

If you filled up your car’s gas tank recently, or popped into a convenience store, there’s a good chance you visited a Parkland location. The Canadian company supplies fuel and operates convenience stores across Canada under many banners, including On the Run, Chevron and Ultramar. Founded in Red Deer, Alberta, in the 1970s, Parkland now operates 4,000 locations in 25 countries. 

The company has expanded quickly. “We're a 50-year-old company, yet 80 per cent of our employees joined us within the last four to five years,” says Bob Espey, Parkland’s president and CEO.

While Parkland is best known as a distributor and retailer of petroleum products, the company is preparing for the energy transition.

In the summer of 2021 Espey drove an electric vehicle from Calgary to Vancouver, stopping five times to recharge the battery. Each stop took between 15 and 30 minutes.

That charging time might be a problem for some, but Espey saw opportunity.

“What became apparent is the consumer experience is underserviced,” he tells Goldy Hyder on the Speaking of Business podcast. “You hear things like range anxiety and time-to-charge anxiety, and there's an opportunity there that – as we see more EVs come into the market – we can address.”

Espey recognizes the change will happen gradually and will vary depending on the country in which Parkland operates. “We have some markets like B.C. which are starting to transition quickly and others where it’s not on the agenda yet.”

Listen to Goldy Hyder’s conversation with Bob Espey on the Speaking of Business  podcast.

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