Exxon Tiger Rolls Over for Flying Horse in Westbrook, Connecticut

WESTBROOK - A familiar orange and black striped tiger and the red "Exxon" logo will no longer greet customers as they pump gas at this station.

The station at 198 Essex Road, also known as Route 153, recently was converted into a Mobil gas station with a Mobil Mart convenience store.

Most Interstate 95 travelers have become familiar with the large signs near the exit 65 interchange advertising the Tanger Outlet Center, Denny's, Honda, and a pylon sign with the Exxon logo and one stating "Ez-Off/Ez-On" Dunkin' Donuts.

The station gets much traffic from Interstate travelers, Tanger Outlet Center shoppers, and moviegoers visiting the nearby Marquee Cinemas.

On a recent evening, the red Exxon letters, with the two X's linked together, could be faintly seen on the large sign covered up by the new Mobil logo with blue letters, a red "o", and a blue stripe.

A blue "gas" sign seen on Interstate 95 North for exit 65 that once displayed the "Exxon" logo has since been replaced with a sign displaying the Mobil logo.

Gasoline pumps, at the station's four gasoline islands, which had the outline of the Exxon tiger, have been painted over with white paint.

Speedpass customers used to point their fabs at the outline of a tiger on the gas pump but now the tiger has been replaced with an outline of Mobil's Pegasus, a flying, red horse that is the official mascot for the Exxon Mobil Corporation.

Exxon and Mobil merged in 1999 creating the world's largest company but decided to not eliminate either brand name from its gas stations.

The red sign with the words "Tiger Mart", in white lettering, above the convenience store's front façade has been replaced at the Westbrook station with a blue sign stating "Mobil Mart."

The Exxon tiger was involved in a battle of sorts nine years ago when the Kellogg Corporation took the oil company to court.

Kellogg claimed the Exxon tiger was marketing food in the Tiger Mart convenience stores and caused confusion for consumers who were unable to tell the difference between Kellogg's "Tony the Tiger", which debuted in 1952, and Exxon's "whimsical tiger", which debuted in 1964 when the company was known as Standard Oil.

Exxon has claimed that both tigers coexisted for a thirty year period, a claim that the U.S. Appellate Court agreed with in a ruling in 2000.

Tony the Tiger sold Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and the Exxon whimsical tiger prompted consumers to put a "tiger in your tank."

The whimsical tiger was even more familiar up north where folks traveling the Massachusetts Turnpike saw the tiger smile at them when they visited Tiger Mart stores which were located in 11 service plazas along the turnpike.

In 2007, all of those stores have been rebranded into Gulf Express convenience stores.

While Exxon may be disappearing from the Westbrook landscape, the tiger is still present on gas pumps in the lower Connecticut River Valley.

Currently, there are Exxon gas stations in Old Saybrook and Chester.

When the Essex Road gasoline station became rebranded as a Mobil station, it became the second Mobil gasoline station in Westbrook.

The other station is located at 130 Boston Post Road, near the Westbrook/Clinton border and features an Xtra Mart Convenience Store.

Despite changes in logo and name at the 198 Essex Road station, the Westbrook Land Use Department reports there are no indications the station will renovate or expand.

The inside of the store appears to be unchanged and still features a red strip on the top of the wall and a small Dunkin' Donuts outlet.

According to Westbrook tax records, the station has been owned by Alliance Energy Corporation since 1999.

According to their Web site, the company is one of the largest petroleum marketing distributors in New England and has a working relationship with several branded gasoline stations including Sunoco, Citgo, Shell, Gulf, Global, Exxon, and Mobil.

Their Connecticut Business Center and Regional Office is located at 36 East Industrial Road in Branford.