Vitus Energy Lands in Anchorage Investing in expanding fuel options statewide.

• Author: Kay, Alexandra

Yellow stripes on former Shell gas stations in Anchorage gave way in 2022 to a new color scheme: the gray and orange logo of Vitus Energy. The name evokes the sea: not just Vitus Bering, the Danish navigator who put Alaska on European maps in 1741, but Vitus Energy, the company formed in 2009 to transport fuel to Western Alaska villages by barge.

Yet here is Vitus Energy at Tudor Road and Arctic Boulevard, as of January, and then at Northern Lights Boulevard and Minnesota Drive in March--far from shore. Though the company is a newcomer to Anchorage drivers gassing up their cars and trucks, Vitus Energy is no stranger to retail fuel after steadily growing through a decade of wholesaling.

"We have eight stores in what I call the road system and four stores in Western Alaska," says co-founder and CEO Mark Smith.

The company's overall strategy is that instead of building new stations and competing with older stations, it picks up older stations and renovates them. That gives the old owners good value and comes with an existing base of customers. "These two stations were struggling and needed a lot of reinvestment, and the owners decided that instead of reinvesting they would sell the locations," Smith says. "Purchasing these legacy stations allows the previous owner a way out and puts us into an existing facility that we can reinvest in."

When the time came for Vitus Energy to expand into the state's largest population center, "Two legacy properties provided an economical starting point for urban expansion," Smith explains. Both midtown locations offer fuel and convenience store items, and the Northern Lights shop came with a liquor license.

'Vitus has been growing since inception but is just getting more visible with opening the Anchorage locations," says Smith.

Growing in Alaska

Born in Oregon while his father was attending law school, Smith grew up in Aleknagik, inland from Dillingham. He worked for his father and uncle's company (originally Smith's grandfather's company), Smith Lighterage Company, which provided tug and barge services. Smith bought the company in the '80s and ran it until 1999, when it joined the Northland Group under the Yukon Fuel Company subsidiary, which was later purchased by Crowley Marine in 2005. Smith and two former Yukon executives--Justin Charon and Shaen Tarter--then formed Vitus Marine, which changed its name in 2013 to Vitus Energy.

Vitus Marine remains the name of one of the company's three main branches...