MECHANICSVILLE, Va. -- Even as news of GPM Investments LLC's acquisition of Sweet Oil Co.as reported in a CSP Daily News Flash yesterdaywas making its way to the industry, president and CEO Dave McComas was on the road, investigating additional growth opportunities.
I'm on a bridge right now driving from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, he told CSP Daily News yesterday morning. There's a couple of sites that are in the permitting process of being remodeled from three-bay stations to convenience stores. I'm going to see some of those and visit the dealers [[image-nocss] and see what comes together].
Mechanicsville, Va.-based GPM Investments, operator of 146 Fas Mart and Shore Stop stores in Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina and Connecticut, has signed an agreement to acquire Newark, Del.-based Sweet Oil, a privately owned petroleum jobber in the Mid-Atlantic states, according to McComas.
Attempts to reach officials at Sweet Oil for comment were unsuccessful; however, GPM said the seller supplies more than 70 million gallons of gasoline annually to 74 locations in five states, including Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia under the Uncle Willie's store name.
[Most of the stores are] in markets where we already have a significant presence, said McComas. As a matter of fact, there's no question that we'll be the No. 1 gasoline distributor in Delaware when this is over with, by a long shot. But it also got us into South Jersey and the Philadelphia suburban market, a place where we haven't been. It's a nice, contiguous growth for us, which is good for our supply chain.
He added that he had been in talks with the owners of Sweet Oil, William Sweet, Mark Greco and Ben Leroy, for some time before finalizing the deal. One of the principals wanted to retire, and they decided that it was a good time to exit the business, McComas said. They've done a great job building the company, and they were going to go on and do other things. We happen to do business in the same marketplace and ran into each other. We've actually been talking for quite a long time.
Upon completion of the deal in November, GPM will have about 220 sites on the East Coast.Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.