TEXARKANA, Texas Since the late 1990s when E-Z Mart Stores was padding its portfolio to a stout 500 units, the company has engaged in an industry version of Weight Watchers. As opposed to slam-bang diets, the rural Texas chain slimmed down in methodical fashion as it sought to improve its fiscal future. It succeeded.
Now, it's time for the reward. After a half-dozen years of deliberate scaling back, the company recently entered into its first acquisition since 1999, when the company bought 85 locations in Arkansas and Oklahoma.
And that could be the start. Buoyed by last month's pickup of seven Zip Trip stores in Oklahoma, E-Z Mart is eyeing other modest-size purchases that will complement its 317-store base and strengthen its small-town presence across the five-state patch of Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.
Additionally, the company continues an aggressive remodeling campaign of its holdings, upgrading both the forecourt and store through pay-at-the-pump, canopies and an updated image. Further, E-Z Mart is erecting new stores with a fresh design that retains the heritage orange-and-green color scheme.
Our growth plans are to expand sales and profits via upgrades and improvements to existing locations, thereby improving our offering and volume, and also through logical, strategic growth in new locations, E-Z Mart CEO Sonja Hubbard told CSP Daily News. We are actively pursuing growth but not aggressively looking at expansion in units. This recent purchase fit us geographically, financially and strategically.We are looking at a few more locations now that would do the same.
What E-Z Mart is not going to do is enter into a buying binge, instead staying on a healthy course. We will, forever, very cautiously monitor debt leverage and the rate of return of our investments. There are some lessons we learn that we should never, ever forget.
Growth and expansion is much more fun, she added. But being a numbers person, I've sure enjoyed the benefits I see on the financial statements from the scale back.We've certainly grown the bottom line while store count declined. I've taken to calling it `smart growth'.
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