Bradley Petroleum's bottom line: Calkins clan clings to independence--and battles retail giants with cheap-gas model.

• Author: Lewis, David

If you are a consumer in these days of sometimes $3-a-gallon gasoline, you've got to appreciate Bradley Petroleum's corporate strategy: to sell gas for as little as the market will bear. Each of the 45 Bradley, Bradley Sinclair and Sav-O-Mat outlets in the Rocky Mountain region follows this blueprint, laid down by Bradley's principal and namesake, Bradley H. Calkins. Calkins, 63, owns 30 Bradley stations in Colorado and Wyoming, most in the Denver area, and is 50-50 partner with his father George Calkins, 90, in 15 Sav-O-Mat gas outlets in Colorado and New Mexico. His strategy, which is just as affected by upward pressure on wholesale prices as the next dealer down the road, nevertheless has had a long-time influence on consumer gas prices in Colorado. And yet Bradley Calkins is largely unknown.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Still, Calkins' chains do a pretty good job of setting the region's floor price for retail gasoline, sometimes dramatically:

On Aug. 28, as Hurricane Katrina neared New Orleans, the Conoco at South Galena Street and East Arapahoe Road plastered a big white sheet over its price board reading "$2.99," a jump of close to 40 cents a gallon in just a couple of hours. At the Bradley-Sinclair convenience store and self-serve gas station at Arapahoe and South Peoria Street, the price was still $2.58 a gallon. By early October, post-Katrina and post-Hurricane Rita, as Colorado retail gasoline prices slowly came down from record-setting highs, Conoco stations still sold unleaded in the $2.90s. Bradley was selling for $2.79 (or $2.789, to be exact). That's the Brad Calkins way of doing business, and it involves keeping a close eye on Conoco as one of his chief rivals.

Until now, Bradley Calkins has never spoken to the press in 40 years of doing business in Denver and Colorado. The press, generally, has in turn left him alone. Westword, the alternative news weekly, did one lengthy piece on Calkins and Bradley gas stations a few years ago, quoting complaints of employees who said they were harshly treated. "Disgruntled employees," Brad Calkins said, dismissing the report. But today's competition in a high-price market may have helped Calkins open up a bit.

In an interview with ColoradoBiz, Calkins spoke on a broad range of topics, from the growth of convenience stores to the public's penchant for conspiracy theories about setting those gasoline prices.

"If you aren't competitive, the consumer doesn't care anymore...