"We've been buying a lot of packages; we have acquired a bunch of sites lately. So we're selling some of our lower-volume locations," Bill McKnight, APEC president, told CSP Daily News. "We are putting ourselves in a position to participate in auctions that are [image-nocss] going to take place for some of the Major Oil locations. Next year, there are going to be ExxonMobil packages available in Florida, and some additional Sunoco packages."
Although he did not provide details, he said, "I've got a deal to buy some Sunoco stations right now."Brands currently represented by APEC include BP, Chevron, CITGO, Mobil, Shell, Sunoco, Texaco and 7-Eleven.
As reported yesterday in a CSP Daily News Flash, of the 46 Sunshine State cities involved with the sale sites, ones with two or more sites include but are not limited to Tampa (12); Bradenton (4); Pinellas Park (3); Winter Haven (3); Ocala (3); Largo (3); Fort Myers (2); Belleview (2); Lakeland (2); Bushnell (2); St. Petersburg (2); Avon Park (2); Lake Park (2); Inverness (2); and Orange City (2).
Bidders will be required to sign a 20-year fuel supply agreement or bid for the sites for alternative use.
Brandon, Fla.-based APEC owns 247 fee-simple c-stores and expects to distribute nearly 360 million gallons throughout Florida in 2009.
The objective of the sealed bid is to put these profitable sites into the hands of aggressive owner-operators, while APEC can reinvest the capital into purchasing new locations and to continue company growth.
"Our company is committed to finding new owner-operators and supporting them in their own business," said McKnight. "We have an aggressive strategic growth plan for our company and that involves selling these 78 stores to business-savvy individuals."
He told CSP Daily News, "We operate under a commission plan. We have 271 commission sites; we have about 80 open dealers. What we're trying to do is get to a 50-50 split. So we're selling a number of sites. We own almost 250 sites, and we're selling a portion of them, because there are going to be other opportunities down the road, and I want to make sure that we're in a position to acquire those sites."
McKnight added, "A number of our existing dealers are buying [these sites], but in some cases, our existing dealer will also sell his business to new operators who might want to come in and own the real estate. Some of our operators were not qualified to purchases the sites; they would be selling their business, and I would be selling the real estate, to a new operator. We're looking for people who want to own their own site; a lot of my operators would not have financial backing to buy the real estate."
The Energy Exchange, Chicago, and PetroProperties & Finance, Coral Gables, Fla., have been named as the real-estate advisors in the sale. The sites will be available in a sealed-bid auction to be coordinated by The Energy Exchange and PetroProperties & Finance. The sale of the 78 store locations is set for July 28, 2009. Bidders may bid on one, some or all of the locations.
To obtain a list of the available stores, contact The Energy Exchange at (866) 906-7499 or www.energy-xchange.com.
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