KY Corn Unveils Partnership with Thorntons Convenience Stores
Kentucky Corn Promotion Council (KyCPC) has invested with Thorntons Convenience Stores for the installation of new ethanol dispensers at 13 of their Kentucky retail locations. The program marks the largest direct investment by KyCPC in ethanol dispenser infrastructure to date.
At the completion of the project, more than 100 fueling positions will make E15 available to Thorntons customers. The product will be branded as Unleaded88.
“KyCorn initiated a strong friendship with Thorntons over 10 years ago by investing with them to install Louisville’s first E85 dispenser on Fern Valley Road,” said Adam Andrews, KyCorn Programs Director. “We’ve been very appreciative of the company’s philosophy on ethanol offerings and their commitment to providing advanced liquid fuels to their customers. We were very excited to see them take on the largest E15 expansion in the country, which occurred in Chicago a few years ago. We are simply ecstatic to be a part of their effort to move this initiative into Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, and Indiana this year.”
Thorntons completed a few installations as a test project in Louisville over a year ago. The decision to move forward with this larger project was based on the performance of those stores. The first opening date for this round of the project is expected to be at a Louisville location on April 30, then six more locations in Louisville throughout the Spring and Summer.
“Thorntons is thrilled to bring Unleaded88 into new territories as this product has already proven itself to be an important part of our portfolio of fuel offerings,” commented Lee Stevens, Sr. Manager, Supply & Transport Commercial Optimization at Thorntons, LLC. “We are glad to have partnerships via the USDA’s Higher Blends Infrastructure Improvement Program (HBIIP) and the Kentucky Corn Promotion Council. We are confident that the Unleaded88 product will be very successful throughout Kentucky, where we have a large presence of Thorntons stores and look forward to providing high ethanol blends to our Kentucky Guests for years to come.”