Last week was ugly for most lubricant distributors and the reason why is that within a time span of just two days (Thursday and Friday); all but one of the majors increased its price of finished lubricants $0.28 to a whopping $0.64 a gallon. The average bump was about $0.35 a gallon. And the price increases didn't stop with the majors. One of the largest independent lubricant manufacturers in the county also announced a price increase of $0.22 a gallon.

Beyond the style, the substance of the price increase notifications was all about the same. They said the increases are in response to the "rising cost of base oil." One major went even further and attributed its increase on the higher cost of base oil, steel and plastic packaging, and the higher cost of additives. Sounds plausible, but is it true? Have major's cost of goods sold gone up that much since the last price increase marketers saw for lubes? Certainly the price of base oil alone hasn't.

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ConocoPhillips Company, announce today an agreement with Goodyear to supply the Kendall GT-1 branded lubricants line, as well as automotive transmission fluids, gear oils and greases, to a nationwide network of 1,800 Goodyear Gemini tire and auto service outlets. The agreement, effective March 1, 2005, enables Goodyear to feature Kendall GT-1 Full Synthetic, Synthetic Blend and High Mileage Motor Oils to its customers through the Goodyear Gemini oil change program.

"We are very excited to have been selected as Goodyear Gemini's lubricants supplier," said Jon Burlingame, tire store segment leader, ConocoPhillips Lubricants. "This relationship brings together two well-respected brands with a long history of offering superior products and services. This agreement will allow Goodyear Gemini to provide tremendous quality and value to its customers by offering products such as Kendall's recently upgraded synthetic blend oils that are marketed in the conventional motor oil arena."

"For consumers, our agreement with ConocoPhillips represents our efforts to secure competitive pricing and quality Kendall-branded motor oil, which fits our model of offering reliable service at our Gemini locations coast-to-coast," said Mark Boswell, Goodyear's Gemini Service Sales Manager. As an added benefit from this new relationship, ConocoPhillips Lubricants Marketers servicing the Goodyear network have the opportunity to gain potential additional product sales in the course of selling Kendall lubricant products into Goodyear stores.

DM2 introduced an interface between its product and ConocoPhillips' order system that automates purchase orders, buy-backs and supplemental allowances for ConocoPhillips jobbers. DM2 estimates that the interface will save the jobber's accounting staff a minimum of one day per week, while increasing accuracy, by eliminating duplicate entry of information into both the DM2 and ConocoPhillips systems.

"Purchase orders and buybacks consume a tremendous amount of time for the jobber's accounting staff," said Carl Dalton, DM2's vice president of sales. "Likewise, it's very time consuming to analyze the profit margins for individual customers. It's a conservative estimate that the interface between our product and ConocoPhillips will save at least one day a week in accounting staff time, while reducing the possibility of errors."

For more information about the interface between DM2 Software and ConocoPhillips' order system, contract DM2 Software at 800-866-5151, info@dm2.com.

Take a look. Its true, Pennzoil is now marketing its passenger car motor oil in a big new six-quart jug; the Superjug. According to promotions for the jug, when you buy five quarts in the Superjug you get one free. The only question on the minds of consumers Jobbers World surveyed about the jug is "what do you do with the extra quart after you change the oil?" Other than that, it seems like a deal at $9.99 a jug.