Monday, January 28, 2013
Guest Perspective: C-Store Industry Year in Review (Part 2 of 2)
Twelve months of activity set stage for momentous 2013
Source: CSP Daily News
By Dennis L. RubenSCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Today, we continue our overview of all of the relevant, meaningful transactions that occurred in the industry during 2012, focusing on oil company initiatives, divestiture of non-strategic assets, bankruptcies and retail initiatives, among other areas.
Oil Company Initiatives
With the closing of the sale of its retail sites in New Jersey early last year, Houston-based ExxonMobil completed its initiative of converting its company-owned and -operated stores to a branded wholesale business, with its real estate assets in the hands of other operators. BP, Houston, and some of the other major oil companies had already completed this same strategy by 2012; however, certain other oil companies were actually going in the opposite direction and were actively acquiring retail assets to operate.
- Speedway LLC, a subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum Corp., Findlay, Ohio, which had previously acquired a number of real estate assets in in Las Vegas in the Gas City bankruptcy sale, continued its aggressive growth strategy in 2012, by acquiring 88 operating locations in Indiana and Ohio from GasAmerica Services Inc., Greenfield, Ind. In addition, Speedway acquired 10 convenience stores in Kentucky and Ohio from Road Ranger LLC, Rockford, Ill.. In October, Marathon Petroleum signed a definitive agreement to purchase BP's Texas City, Texas, refinery, related pipelines, four terminals and retail marketing contract assignments with respect to approximately 1,200 branded sites for a base price of $598 million, plus inventories valued at $1.2 billion.
- Valero Energy Corp., San Antonio, was also expanding its footprint and purchasing retail assets during 2012. It signed rebranding agreements with GB Southern Oil LLC of Mobile, Ala., for five stores, Southern Petroleum Inc. of Somerset, Ky., for 26 locations, Capital Oil Inc. of Jackson, Miss., for 10 locations, and Capital Petroleum and its affiliates for 27 stores. Valero also entered into an agreement with The Pantry Inc., Cary, N.C., to convert 143 properties to a newly created joint banner and will convert an additional 25 stores to the Valero flag. Valero acquired 29 convenience stores from Crackerbox Stores in the Little Rock and Hot Springs, Ark., markets.
- In early 2012, Tesoro Corp., San Antonio, announced that it had agreed to purchase from BP its Carson, Calif., refinery, as well as 800 dealer-operated retail convenience store locations in southern California
To see a list of convenience stores for sale and gas stations for sale, click here.