Irving Station on Merrimac closed

Written by Gillian Swart Friday, 29 January 2010 14:23

gas_station The Irving gas station at 185 Merrimac Street has closed, leaving Newburyport with just five gas stations. The Irving station at 63 Elm St. in Amesbury also has been closed by the owner, an independent distributor of Irving gas who owned 23 stations in the region.

C.K. Smith Company Inc. of Worcester, a heating and cooling specialist and fuel provider, has closed all of its gas stations in eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. The Amesbury Circle K station on Route 110, across from the Dunkin’ Donuts shop between Interstates 95 and 495, is still open, as is the Circle K in Seabrook. Both are owned by Irving Oil, which supplied gasoline to C.K. Smith. Neither the Newburyport nor the Amesbury station was an Irving-owned business.

At the station on Merrimac Street, ‘store closed’ signs are posted and pumps are tied up with yellow plastic tape.Calls to C.K. Smith Co. were not immediately returned. The company owns the property on Merrimac Street and operated 22 other Irving gas stations in eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. All of those stations have closed, according Liza Dube, Public Relations and Community Affairs Manager at Irving Oil’s Portsmouth office.

Dube said: “All I can say is that C.K. Smith is having some financial hard times right now and have chosen to close their locations in eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.”

She added that Irving Oil is “still fuel-invested” in the region and is looking at all its options.

Rick Field, the manager of the Circle K/Irving station on Route 110, said that the closings were unexpected, but that the Circle K stations are going strong. Irving Oil announced in May 2008 that it would brand all its leased retail outlets as Circle K convenience stores.

Dube said that the Circle K locations are stable and will remain open and Irving Oil hopes their other nearby locations – the one on Route 110 in Amesbury and one on Route 1 in Seabrook - will take up the slack left by the two local closings. The remaining gas stations in Newburyport are the Global on High Street, State Street Mobil, a Sunoco, Seacoast Mobil and a Shell station. The latter three are all located on Storey Avenue, close to Interstate 95. There is also an AMPET station on High Road in Newbury.

Both the Amesbury and Seabrook Circle K locations participate in the Irving Oil promotions with Shaw’s and Dunkin’ Donuts where customers get credit for gas based on purchases at those two retailers. Using the Shaw’s reward card and/or using a promotion on the Dunkin’ Donuts website, customers can save on purchases of up to 20 gallons, Field said.

Field said: “We’ve had people get gas for nothing, believe it or not. If you use it right, it’s a good plan.” His station is self-serve only.

Irving Oil is a family-owned, privately-held company based in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. It has 700 retail sites - gas stations with food marts - including 160 in the U.S. All of its U.S. gas stations are in New England with most of those being in Maine and New Hampshire.

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