TEMPLE, Texas -- As expected, Fikes Wholesale Inc., parent company of the 194-unit CEFCO Convenience Stores chain, has acquired the retail interests of 63 Taylor Food Mart Stores from Taylor Petroleum Co., Amarillo, Texas. The stores--many of which were reportedly experiencing supply disruptions and financial issues--are located in West Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.
(See Related Content below for previous CSP Daily News coverage.)
"We are pleased to welcome the Taylor Food Mart team and stores into our Fikes/CEFCO Convenience Store family" said James Fikes, president and CEO of Fikes Wholesale. "This agreement truly represents a win-win for all parties involved and we look forward to serving our customers in these new market areas with immediate plans to resupply depleted inventories."
As reported in a Morgan Keegan/CSP Daily News Flash yesterday, terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
"The addition of the Taylor Stores coupled with the August 2011 acquisition of the 69-store Food Fast Store group has helped our company grow to a 257-store chain operating in seven states," said Fikes.
He added that CEFCO's growth "also provides synergistic opportunity for other Fikes companies." These businesses include Fikes Wholesale (supplier of branded and unbranded fuel to retail and commercial customers) Group Petroleum Services (common-carrier fuel transport fleet), Cord Financial Services (nationwide ATM provider of more than 6,000 ATMs) and JF Air (charter air service).
When contacted by CSP Daily News, Fikes Wholesale would not comment further about the deal or how it will address the newly acquired stores' current supply problems. Fikes Wholesale spokesperson Stephanie Phillips told the Plainview Daily Herald that customers should begin seeing changes at Taylor stores "pretty quickly," She added, "We're putting some game plans together and trying to get stores resupplied as soon as possible."
Based in Temple, Texas, Fikes Wholesale is a more than 60-year-old company that began as a fuel distributor and has grown to an entity that encompasses other businesses that are centered around and serve the convenience store industry. The company employs more than 2,000 people across the southern United States.
CEFCO operates 257 c-stores in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arkansas and employs more than 2,000 team members chain-wide.
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