The centennial festival:

The Popular Celebration

Only 4% of companies in this competitive world celebrate their 100 Anniversary… The Chammas Group of Companies is proudly one of them.

As they have been sharing their success with the Lebanese since 1910, it was normal for The Chammas Group, i.e. MEDCO & PHOENICIA CALTEX brands, to celebrate their Centennial with their compatriots. During four weekends, the MEDCO & PHOENICIA CALTEX Caravan of Joy – Centennial Tour Festival will roam the streets of Lebanon stopping in 8 different villages from South to North.

Organized by Urban Art, the caravan is composed of trucks and busses accompanied by cheerful music. At each stop the caravan will stay for 4-5 hours in the afternoon in the chosen village and will propose many games and shows for free to all the visitors: Inflatable games, Fair games, Circus acts, workshops, contests… with many gifts and surprises awaiting the children!

The week ends are divided as follow: 19 June : Kfar Debiane, 20 june : Deir El qamar, 3rd july : Zahle, 4th July: Karaoun 17th july Saida, 18th July : Rmeich, 24th July: Tripoli, 25th of July: Zgharta (dates and places may vary)

History of the Company

It all started with one energetic young man, with a vision. Gerge Ncoula Chammas was 13 years old when he traded school benches for sales benchmarking. He was born trader, super selling –using his words- “Only products with high demand, 1st necessities, which are non exchangeable, non-refundable, non-quizzical and non-discretional”. The only product that matched his prerequisites was coal. It was 1910, the era of industrialization and Incorporation of ETS. GEORGES N. CHAMMAS.

He was first, but now, not alone, as his 2 sons, Nicolas and Raymond, joined Gerge then. It was the natural path of the second generation to follow the successful step foots of their father and mentor that groomed them since their early childhoods. From driving “papoo papoo “engines, to receiving tankers, the duet have been managing the local, Levant and Middle Eastern markets with the same expertise and commitment to successful innovation as their founder.

It was 1964, the establishment of the entity that made the Est. a Group. It was, and still is, the first national petroleum group, rising to meet the every day growing demands for energy. It was and still is, a privately owned, family business. From Ansar to Dora, Taanayel, Bahsas, Jnah, Baalbeck, Achrafieh to Ras el Metn, the MEDCO stations were multiplying all over the country due to the reputation of Quality and service they provided you. The Chammas brothers believe that the definition of a service station was about Service and station meaning full STOP, i.e. point of sale. Service went plural, and became fast enough the core business of the group, as Oil was a steady commodity by the time, leaving narrow space for product innovation.

The Group survived 1st and 2nd World wars, and the long Lebanese civil and cold wars. The petroleum installation burnt twice, once in 79 and once in 89. It took the courage of 2 Entrepreneurs sharing the same blood, fearing only God, to rebuild from scratch what their father created and what they had expanded and nurtured.

Today the 3rd generation is in throttle, waiting for the 4th to graduate from college. As 4% of companies in this competitive world celebrate their 100 Anniversary, we double our strategic efforts to remain among the merry few. As more than 60% do not survive the 3rd generation, we strongly aim at witnessing from above our grand-grand children rejoice when up streamers find the last drop of Oil in soil or sea to serve our Community!