Europa was a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

-owned oil company that was operated by the

Todd family Todd or Todds may refer to: Places Australia * Todd River, an ephemeral river United States * Todd Valley, California, also known as Todd, an unincorporated community * Todd, Missouri, a ghost town * Todd, North Carolina, an unincorporated c ...

in New Zealand, in competition with overseas firms such as Texaco (now

Caltex Caltex is a petroleum brand name of Chevron Corporation used in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, and Southern Africa. Headquartered in Singapore, it is also the brand name of non-Chevron petroleum companies in some countries (such as ...

in NZ), Plume (now

Mobil Mobil Oil Corporation, now known as just Mobil, is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, formerly known as Exxon, which took its current name after history of ExxonMobil#merger, it and Mobil merge ...

), Shell (now

Z Energy Z Energy is a New Zealand fuel distributor with branded service stations. It owns some of the former assets of Shell New Zealand and Chevron New Zealand. It has been a subsidiary of Australian petroleum company Ampol since May 2022. Shell l ...

) and Atlantic (now

). Starting in Dunedin (where the Todd family was based), in 1931 Charles Todd decided to import his own petrol. From 1933 the ''Europa'' brand of cheap imported petrol from the Soviet Union was sold through a chain of service stations across the country, in association with the New Zealand Farmer's Union and various regional Automobile Associations. Because of price undercutting by the overseas firms, the government introduced regulation of petrol prices from 1933. In the early sixties the company was fined a large sum in a Transfer pricing scandal. In 1972

British Petroleum BP p.l.c. (formerly The British Petroleum Company p.l.c. and BP Amoco p.l.c.; stylised in all lowercase) is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. It is one of the oil and gas " supermajors" and one of ...

NZ acquired a 60% interest in the company. During this time, the company produced what was an award-winning television advert that featured American rock legend

Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (also known as SRV; October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (band), Double Trouble. Although his ma ...

and New Zealand Blues legend

Midge Marsden Keith Douglas "Midge" Marsden (born 1945) is a New Zealand blues and R&B guitarist, harmonica-player, and singer with a musical career spanning four decades. Life and career Marsden was born and brought up in Moturoa, New Plymouth, Taranaki ...

as part of the "Travellin' On" television adverts. The television adverts were shot mainly around the Central North Island of New Zealand during 1988.NZ On Screen: Travellin' On - Europa (with Stevie Ray Vaughan)
/ref> This would be the last major television advert used until 1989 when the Europa brand was replaced with the BP shield.

References

External links

Biography of Charles Todd (1868-1942)
Oil and gas companies of New Zealand Automotive fuel retailers Companies based in Dunedin {{NewZealand-company-stub

See also

References

External links