22-9-75

Mobil Dealers Begin Boycott

The banners and caricatures go up at Guam Tong service station in Farrer Road and also at 32 others of the 39 Mobil stations in Singapore.

The 33 dealers are refusing to sell Mobil products from today in protest against the oil company's alleged "victimisation" of Guam Tong.

"Our boycott will go on indefinitely", said the chairman of the Singapore Mobil Petrol Dealers Association, Mr Lawrence Lee late last night.

"However, other services such as repairing and servicing of cars will continue as usual."

The boycott follows the expiry of an ultimatum to Mobil two weeks ago to withdraw their proposed cancellation of Guam Tongs franchise at the end of the month because of poor sales.

Mobil has denied the charge of "victimisation" and said it had offered the Farrer Road dealer six-month contract with steps to help improve his management performance.

Mr Lee of the dealers' association said, "Most contracts are usually for one-year periods. I don't see why the association should accept a six-month extension.

(N.B. Earlier, speaking at a press conference to announce the boycott, Mr Lee quoted a Mobil letter which said that the dealer had enjoyed an annual growth of 1.9% between 1969 to last year.

The Mobil letter however, described the dealers performance as "hardly encouraging" when compared to the 7.7% growth in fuel sales of other service stations during the same period.)