Kerikeri petrol prices to drop as 'Gull effect' arrives

Gull is opening a cut-price petrol station at Waipapa next month.

Bay of Islands motorists will soon enjoy the "Gull effect" with petrol prices expected to plummet when a cut-price petrol station opens in Waipapa.

Gull New Zealand is planning to open an unmanned petrol station off Klinac Lane in March. Earthworks are already underway opposite The Warehouse.

Even motorists who don't tank up there are likely to reap the benefits of what the AA calls the Gull effect. Wherever Gull has opened for business, existing service stations have dropped their prices to stay competitive.

Motorists in Kerikeri, which is served by a BP/Caltex duopoly, have long grumbled about relatively high petrol prices.

Whangarei, by contrast, has some of the country's lowest petrol prices - a result not of the proximity of Marsden Pt oil refinery, but of a Gull station in Otaika. The price difference between Kerikeri and Whangarei is at times as high as 20 cent a litre.

Karl Mischewski, Gull retail development manager, said work on the Waipapa site had been delayed by consent issues but he now expected it to open in March.

It would be an unmanned site with four dispensers offering regular, Force 10 (98 octane) and diesel. Payment would be by Eftpos or credit card. There would be no Gull shop but the developer was planning retail outlets on the multi-tenant site.

It was too early to say what petrol would cost but Mr Mischewski said Gull's arrival would bring genuine competition beyond Whangarei and force other service stations to lower their prices.

"Wherever Gull turns up, lo and behold, prices drop," he said.

"They'll try to match us - bring it on, we say. But it does beg the question: Why does it take Gull, a small family-owned operation, to turn up and rattle the others?"

Gull also had many requests to open in Kaitaia but Waipapa was as far north as the company could go while remaining competitive because its fuel was transported from Mt Maunganui. The big four firms get their petrol from Marsden Pt.

Of the possible sites in the Bay of Islands, Waipapa was chosen for its growth prospects and role as a retail hub. Gull's decision to invest was a "thumb's up" for the area.

When Gull opened a service station in Tokoroa in November, prices at every outlet in town dropped by 9 cents a litre within a day, Mr Mischewski said.