BAINBRIDGE, Ga. -- Despite the fact it just sold its 24 SunStop stores, Southwest Georgia Oil Co. isn't in sell-off mode. Similarly, the company's purchase of 19 Big Little Stores in Alabama a month ago doesn't signify the company is hot to grow.
What theseand several other strategic moves by the Bainbridge, Ga.-based companydo signify is a diversified strategy and a desire to be swift-of-foot to do what's best for the company, picking and choosing opportunities as they crop up.
One of the things that we are interested in [image-nocss] and in the process of pursuing is renewable fuel, Glennie Bench, vice president of finance and administration for the company, told CSP Daily News. We're building a biodiesel refinery here in Bainbridge, Ga., and we're investing in a much larger ethanol plant near Bainbridge, one of many investors.
It all makes for a full plate for the company, which also owns and operates a propane division, one small grocery store and a fuel distribution operation run under the Inland brand.
The CEO of the company [Mike Harrell] is younger than 45. I'm the CFO, and I'm younger than 45. And the COO is under 40, said Bench. So we've got a lot of years left in us, we hope, and look forward to a lot of years of aggressive growth in other areas.
So it was that the company found itself this fall at a place where it could have nearly doubled its retail size or been out of retail altogether, depending on which way a couple of pending deals had gone, one to purchase the Big Little company; the other to sell the SunStop stores to The Pantry, Sanford, N.C.
[The Pantry] had expressed some interest a good while back, but we were already committed with a deposit to purchase the Big Little Stores in Alabama, Bench said in describing how the two deals happened to come together at the same time. So we went with the timing. Clearly, neither one at the time was a completed deal, and so it was foolish to count your chickens before they hatched.
In the end, Southwest Georgia Oil acquired the Big Little Stores and its wholesale petroleum division on Nov. 8. Earlier this week, the company sold its SunStop stores to The Pantry.
If one had happened without the other, that would have simplified things considerably, but we're glad to still be involved in retail, Bench said. And certainly, the purchase from The Pantry allows us the resources to do some things with these Big Little Stores that might have taken longer than it will now. That includes upgrade, reimaging and rebranding of the gasoline as necessary, she added.
The sale of the SunStop stores also meant giving up that brand. Thus, Southwest Georgia Oil intends to develop a new retail image for the stores.
And what if the Big Little deal hadn't gone through and the company had been left without any retail sites?
That clearly would have more drastically changed the direction of our company, but we began as a wholesale company, so in a way it would have been going back to our roots, Bench said. But we believe that there's an opportunity with renewable fuels for us, and if we had gotten out of retail completely, it would have allowed us to more fully focus on those renewable fuel opportunities.
Big Little Stores Inc., based in Enterprise, Ala., was originally named Curry-McCreary Oil Co. Big Little Stores sold 19 of its 20 convenience stores to Southwest Georgia Oil, leaving it with one store in Marianna, Fla. All 19 stores sold are located in southeastern Alabama. The company also sold its bulk plant in Enterprise, which will allow the new owner flexibility in serving its wholesale customers and retail sites.
About the acquisition, Harrell, whose father started Southwest Georgia Oil, said, I was excited about this potential acquisition from day one. [Big Little], with an emphasis on his retail sites, reminded me of how my dad might have developed stores in today's marketlarge sites, prominent diesel offerings and huge drivewaysright up my father's alley.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.