Independent player Seaoil reached a milestone recently with the commercial completion of its 500th station, and this has been serving as its stimulus to pursue further expansion on a target to reach 600 stations by yearend.

The new retail station is sited along Meralco Avenue in San Antonio, Pasig City, one of the considered high traffic areas for prospective motorist-clients.

And while the country is still enmeshed in the quandaries of a pandemic, the oil company indicated that it is out to “beat the wider business downturn” and will remain aggressive in growing its retail network this year given the additional 100 stations it cast for 2020.

Francis Glen Yu, chief executive officer of Seaoil, said “the opening of our 500th station is part of our goal to fuel a better future in every community and every neighborhood that we are in.”

Prior to its 500th retail network feat, the other new stations it brought to commercial operations included those in Quezon City, Batangas, Mindoro, Pampanga, Cabanatuan, Abra, Compostela Valley, Iloilo, Aklan, Cotabato and Davao.

And as the company counts its portfolio leap by the hundreds, Yu noted that from its recently completed station, “this milestone brings us closer to our goal of having 600 stations nationwide by the end of this year.”

The portfolio growth primarily gained traction when Seaoil built its biggest branch in 2017 – its so-called mega station at the stretch of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, a development integrated with a City Mall complex.

That facility was its 400th station; and the company had just grown even more unstoppable on its investment expansion from that time on.

Beyond business, Seaoil emphasized that it is also reinforcing efforts to support the country as it bounces back from the economic hurdles of a pandemic.

“With the opening of more stations, Seaoil aims to generate local jobs, provide business for new franchise partners, and offer specialized promotions to serve the communities they operate in,” the company said.

At the same, it has been extending support to the country’s Covid-19 response and it set aside P10 million for that endeavor – enabling it to offer free fuel discounts to aid frontliners from hospitals, local government units and transport groups.