MUNCIE, Ind. -- Jerry Tipps, owner of Jerry's Junction convenience store and gas station in Muncie, Ind., said that he hopes to open as many as 10 additional locations in Muncie by the end of this year.
It's an aggressive number, Tipps told The Muncie Star Press. I'm hoping to have a minimum of five, maximum of 10 open by the end of the year.
Tipps is no newcomer to the convenience store business. He owned and operated stores and gas stations in the Indianapolis area for 30 years, said the report, and he opened Jerry's Junction [image-nocss] on May 21 after investing $45,000 in new fixtures to the building.
He bought the location from G&G Oil after it became available following Marsh's decision last fall to close the Village Pantry it operated there. He plans to open c-stores in other buildings that have been closed by former owners, the report said.
Tipps said his plan to open multiple stores might seem daring, but made sense. If you're going to be in business, do it the right way, he said. In order to be successful in this business, you have to own multiple locations because profit margins are so thin.
He added, I used to think the profits from gas would pay my mortgage on the building, and they did for a long time. But Murphy Oil and Kroger and all the mass marketers got into the industry and started driving the price down. If you can make four or five cents a gallon, you're lucky.
Separately, Anthony Manley, a Binghamton, N.Y.-based retailer with 22 Manley's Mighty Mart stores earning $100 million in annual revenue, told The Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin that two years ago, the company decided it wanted to double its size within five to seven years, and we're on line for that. This year, the company is adding four stores. Two years ago, the company had 18 stores. Within a few months, it will be at 24.
Manley was named the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce's Small Business Person of the Year at its annual dinner earlier this year.
Wendy Loomis, chair of the chamber's Recognition & Awards Committee, said Manley was tapped for his leadership in the small-business community; contributions to the community as a whole; innovation of products and services; and growth in the past five years. He was also selected for his role-model potential, Loomis told the paper.
We always have heated debates when the committee is making an awards decision, she said. Tony was the logical choice based on the initial nomination, the subsequent application and the submission of numerous letters of support sent to the Recognition and Awards committee in his behalf.
The company recently donated $150,000 to Binghamton University, largely because its management school has given so much to Manley's in terms of people, talent and insight. But the company also devotes a portion of its revenues to various charities.
Manley's gift to Binghamton University is based on his belief that the university can be a hub and help the Southern Tier more than anything else. When IBM and everybody had the mass layoffs last time around, and they had the downsizing, many, many of those previously employed people who had stayed around and waited for jobs, many of them left this area, Manley said. That's where the loss of population came from. And so consequently, there's a void there, and I think the university's doing an excellent job of filling it.
He added, We seek employees out of it because of the quality of the education they were given over there. If you give people an excellent job, they'll stay. I've got people here who graduated from BU and other parts of SUNY, and they're doing a terrific job for me.
The company's growth, Manley said, is a testament to our customers and my employees. You could have the biggest, prettiest buildings and the best merchandise in the world, but if you don't have the people to take care of it, and the customers coming in, there is no business.
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