DALLAS -- 7-Eleven Inc.'s purchase of 10 stores in the Salt Lake City area is a textbook example of how the convenience store giant intends to grow its market share in the coming years.
Our strategy now is to look at acquisitions that will grow our store base where we have existing stores, spokesperson Margaret Chabris told CSP Daily News. While Salt Lake City might not be our biggest growth area, this certainly was a nice package of stores that fit in neatly with the stores that we have in the great Salt Lake City area.
With [image-nocss] the purchase, reported in a CSP Daily News Flash yesterday, 7-Eleven now owns 112 stores in the Salt Lake City area, as well as a handful of franchised stores.
Chabris said the company initiated a franchisee program in Utah just last year, and these new stores will eventually be added to that lineup. We will franchise these locations as 7-Eleven stores after we integrate them into our systems, she said. There's an integration period that allows us to get our retail-information systems and technology [in place], to learn about how we'll go to market with fresh foods, etc. But eventually, we anticipate that they would become franchise stores.
The stores were purchased from McKee Oil Co., Taylorsville, Utah. The company owned and operated 18 stores under the Kicks banner, selling Phillips 66 gasoline at all of the sites prior to the sale. The company said it will continue to own and operate its remaining eight stores.
Chabris said 7-Eleven will retain the supply agreement with Phillips 66 at least temporarily and may even look at growing that relationship to include supplying other 7-Eleven stores in the area. It's a strong brand [in that region] so we'll continue to sell it at least for the near-term as Phillip 66 gasoline, she said.
Terms of the purchase agreement were not disclosed, but Dallas-based 7-Eleven expects to close the deal before the end of 2006.
To read more about 7-Eleven's new business philosophy since becoming a privately owned company, watch for the January issue of CSP magazine.
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