Vitus Energy Expands through Reinvestment in Anchorage Gas Stations

“Vitus purchases fuel at various points around the Pacific Rim and locally here in Alaska,” says Smith. “We provide unique buying and transportation solutions for our wide variety of customers.” Routine delivery methods include retail sales, truck delivery, tanker shipping, and even air freight. “This year we’ve probably flown a quarter million gallons out to rural locations,” says Smith.

In 2011, the Vitus team made history with a chartered ice-class tanker making a mid-winter delivery to the ice-bound port of Nome. Over the years the Vitus boat fleet has grown to more than eighteen vessels as the company has served more difficult-to-reach areas. And Smith says the company has reset benchmarks for safety, speed, and weather tolerance.

The company’s biggest selling item is diesel fuel in Western Alaska, where its largest customers are electric utilities. With its marine services, the company delivers gasoline and diesel to more than 100 different stops from the Arctic to the Aleutians and up the tributary rivers in between. “Our retail customers are found in Kotzebue, St. Michael, Bethel, Dillingham, Sterling, Anchorage, Chugiak, Trapper Creek, Cantwell, Healy, and Tok,” says Smith. “Initiated in the last two years are home and commercial delivery services along the highways between Talkeetna and Tok and in the general Fairbanks area.”

All Stations Go

Vitus began to expand into retail sales, home, and commercial truck deliveries several years ago, mainly to increase sales and diversify from summer-only barge deliveries.

“We’re literally frozen in,” says Smith. “Getting into winter distribution of fuel and gas stations was a way to have year-round business.” Adding the distribution of winter fuel and retail gasoline sales has allowed the company to operate—and profit—all year long. “We subsequently expanded our retail distribution in both western and central parts of the state,” he adds.

While Vitus has been distributing wholesale fuel in Alaska since 2011, the company purchased its first convenience store/gas station in Dillingham in 2014. The store had been for sale for some time. Upon purchasing the station, Vitus was able to quickly lower the price of gas by $0.75 per gallon.

A few years later it acquired a store in Sterling, which it finished renovating in June 2019 with a full remodel of the store, including new fuel pumps and hot food service. Stores in Trapper Creek, Tok, and Healy—along with several other locations—have followed. In general, the stores include convenience grocery items, diesel, and gasoline. The Healy store sells heating fuel oil and propane, houses a laundromat, and serves as the company’s hub for truck deliveries from Cantwell to Fairbanks. The Tok location has fuel trucks for local deliveries. The Trapper Creek location has a bulk terminal for a local fuel truck.

Vitus has also expanded fuel storage capacity and introduced it in some places. In November 2021, the company added 1 million gallons of diesel and unleaded storage in Bethel to further its vertical integration and keep costs down. The month before that, the company added 270,000 gallons of unleaded storage in Kotzebue and secured a deal with the electric utility to rent excess diesel storage. In June 2021, the company began providing fuel to the greater Fairbanks area, with 100,000 gallons of fuel and propane storage, a six-bay truck shop, and numerous new fuel trucks. And in May 2021, the company expanded its fleet of boats with the addition of a 200,000-gallon barge.

Smith says Vitus Energy is always looking for opportunities to expand its footprint and will add more retail stations as they become available.

Vitus’ presence has offered financial benefits to the communities it serves. For example, when the company began servicing Kotzebue, offering commercial and residential services along with a gas station, gas prices dropped by $1 per gallon. And when Vitus began operations in 2011, there was a 15 percent drop in the marine transportation rate.

Smith’s upbringing means he cares about protecting the state and its people, and he says Vitus’ commitment to renovating older gas stations is a part of that. “When we commit to serving an area, we aim to deliver an economical choice, whether it’s gasoline, propane, diesel, and—as vehicles evolve—electric power,” notes Smith.

The company is also proud of its heritage and the part it plays in the local economy. Its focus is on going local for everything possible—from its employees to its vendors and the products it purchases. “Alaska has often been served by outside interests who come up and drill for oil or fish and take the profits back home, but we are an Alaskan group trying to serve Alaskans, and we believe in hiring local and using local vendors to the best of our abilities.”