Utility consumers used to seeing Mountain Fuel on their gas bill may be surprised to see the company has formally changed its name and logo. Nearly gone are the days of Mountain Fuel. Starting in January it will be Questar Gas Co., company officials announced Wednesday.
The board of directors of Mountain Fuel and its parent company, Questar Corp., voted for a name that will allow the whole corporation, as it expands into new products and services, to offer all its customers a single "brand."The move to a single brand name comes as Questar looks at a spectrum of products and services in a deregulated energy market. The company is involved in a range of products and services including such things as earthquake braces, carbon-monoxide monitors and home-security and appliance-maintenance programs. Yet another company, Questar Info-Comm, markets information technology and telecommunications.
"I want to assure our customers and employees that there has been no change in ownership of the company," said R.D. Cash, chairman, president and CEO of Questar Corp.
"What we hope our customers will notice is that Questar Gas is part of an organization that will provide many new products and ser-vices, along with the reliable and low-cost service they've come to expect from Mountain Fuel over the past 60 years. If you can imagine a Questar `basket' of products and services, we want people to see our retail gas operations in that same basket.
"The Mountain Fuel name identifies primarily with gas distribution. The Questar name will reflect all facets of the industry."
In conjunction with the name change, Cash unveiled a new logo that will be in use throughout the Questar organization by the beginning of 1998. The logo includes an updated version of the trapezoid that has been a company trademark since 1963.
Questar Corp. traces its roots to 1928, when a holding company, Western Public Service Corp., was formed to bring natural gas to northern Utah from southwestern Wyoming. At that time, Mountain Fuel Supply Co. was the name of the oil and gas exploration and production affiliate. In 1953, the shareholders voted to reorganize Western Public Service Co. as a single company.