Kentucky
Kentucky-based Thorntons is a major recent addition to bp’s growing global convenience and mobility business
Fast facts
- Kentucky is home to more than 260 bp-owned and -branded retail stations.
- From its headquarters in Louisville, Thorntons maintains stores in Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Florida.
In 2021, bp took full ownership of Louisville-based Thorntons, adding 200 high-quality retail stores in the Midwest and the South. The agreement also brought Thorntons’ 3,400+ employees – working across six states – into the bp network. This marks our return to company operated sites in the US.
Thorntons provides a competitive consumer offer and strong business operations. bp intends to build on, and further enhance, this long tradition of providing a distinctive customer experience while creating integrated value across bp’s mobility and convenience and fuels supply businesses.
Convenience retail is evolving amid rising demand from consumers with ever-changing needs. Based on Euromonitor analysis, the convenience opportunity will nearly double over the next decade in 45 of the leading economies of the world, growing at more than 5% each year.
This anticipated growth aligns with the strategy for bp’s convenience and mobility business, which aims to nearly double global earnings by 2030, from $5 billion in 2019, and deliver 15-20% returns. bp aims to increase the number of strategic convenience sites in its global network from around 2,000 today to more than 3,000 by 2030.
bp’s customer app, BPme, has more than three million transacting customers globally, and the company aims to grow the number of customers on its digital platforms more than tenfold by 2030.
Thorntons’ successful, customer-focused app and digital presence will help enhance the digital solutions needed to develop innovative and personalized offers. This includes high-quality food, loyalty programs and next generation mobility solutions, including electrification.
In October 2022, bp announced an agreement to acquire Archaea Energy Inc., a leading producer of renewable natural gas (RNG) in the US. Based in Houston, Archaea Energy operates 50 RNG and landfill gas-to-energy facilities across the US, producing around 6,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) of RNG.
Archaea’s landfill gas to RNG project at the Boyd County Sanitary Landfill in Ashland, Kentucky, is a testament to Archaea Energy’s gas processing capabilities. Archaea’s experienced technical and operational team enabled this project to become operational in just four months after acquiring the project from another developer which was unable to produce pipeline quality RNG.
