As reported in a Morgan Keegan/CSP Daily News Flash yesterday, the new agreement with 7-Eleven includes maintenance and operations responsibilities for Mobil fuel stations at the Tollway Oases located throughout Northern Illinois and will ensure seamless [image-nocss] continuation of services for Tollway customers. 7-Eleven will take responsibility for the Oases sites, including 13 Mobil fuel stations, c-stores and car washes.
"7-Eleven is a nationally recognized brand, and we're pleased to have them as a new partner," said Illinois Tollway executive director Kristi Lafleur. "Our goal is to provide the highest level of service to our customers and 7-Eleven is a welcome addition."
By the end of March, all of these c-stores will be rebranded as 7-Eleven operations. Fuel stations will retain the Mobil gasoline brand, allowing customers to continue to purchase Mobil-brand fuel and use the ExxonMobil credit card at the gasoline dispensers and inside the stores. In addition, the c-stores will offer consumers 7-Eleven's signature products, such as Slurpee and Big Gulp beverages, fresh foods, self-serve coffee and a variety of cold drinks, along with standard c-store items.
"Acquisitions are part of our aggressive growth strategy. This acquisition gives our brand great visibility in Chicagoland and provides more opportunity for us to serve consumers there with 7-Eleven-style convenience," said Sean Duffy, 7-Eleven's vice president of mergers and acquisitions. "These ExxonMobil sites add to the approximately 750 locations that 7-Eleven Inc. has acquired since the beginning of 2008 when we significantly ramped up our expansion efforts."
The Tollway Oases provide a variety of food, beverage and retail offerings, as well as fuel stations. On the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate-94/I-294/I-80), there are four oases: Lake Forest, O'Hare, Hinsdale and Chicago Southland Lincoln in South Holland. There are two oases on the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90) in Belvidere and Des Plaines, and one on the Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88) in DeKalb.
Neither 7-Eleven nor ExxonMobil would release financial information about the transaction, added a report by The Daily Herald. According to financial information obtained by the newspaper, the tollway was entitled to $1.53 million from fuel sales in 2009, plus $159,216 from c-store sales and another $7,008 from car wash profit-sharing. The report also states that motorists spent more than $67.6 million on fuel at the 13 stations along the tollway in 2009.
Tollway officials rejected a similar lease transfer proposal between ExxonMobil and Lincolnshire, Ill.-based Combined Oil Co. in March 2010, said the report, because ExxoMobil did not believe that Combined Oil did not have strong enough finances in place to handle liability issues or economic stresses. Agency officials did not have the same concerns with 7-Eleven, the paper said.
Unlike the financial trouble the tollway has had with the company managing the actual oases, the fueling stations and c-stores have been a boon for the tollway and the oil company, added the Herald. At a minimum, the lease guarantees the tollway receives at least $900,250 a year in rent from the fuel station and c-stores; however, operations have regularly outperformed the minimum.
The lease agreement calls for the tollway to receive three cents for every gallon of gasoline sold and one cent of every sale at the c-store and car wash, the report said.
The Illinois Tollway, headquartered in Downers Grove, Ill., is a user-fee system that receives no state or federal funds for maintenance and operations. The agency maintains and operates 286 miles of interstate tollways in 12 counties in northern Illinois.
Dallas-based 7-Eleven Inc. operates, franchises or licenses more than 8,300 7-Eleven stores in North America. Globally, it operates, franchises or licenses more than 39,000 stores in 16 countries. During 2009, 7-Eleven stores worldwide generated total sales of more than $58.9 billion. The company is franchising its U.S. stores and is expanding through organic growth, acquisitions and its Business Conversion Program.
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