BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Mark Conan, vice president of finance and CFO of Plaid Pantries Inc., said the West Coast convenience retail chain is now interested in adding up to 50 more stores. He estimated that Plaid Pantries serves 20% of the convenience store market in Portland and 15% in Oregon. We would like to grow it larger than that, Conan told The Portland Business Journal.
The first Plaid Pantry was opened by founder John Piacentini in 1960. At its peak, it boasted 177 locations. The chain contracted after 1987, when Piacentini sold the chain. Today, [image-nocss] Beaverton-based Plaid Pantries operates 100 convenience stores and a dozen gas stations in Washington and Oregon.
The company, which owns and operates its own stores, has succeeded not by growing quickly, but by closing underperforming stores, said the report. In five years, annual revenue has soared 50%, to $150 million. Over the same period, it closed 10 stores and opened eight, meaning revenue rose with fewer stores.
Plaid Pantries positions itself as both the place to stop for a quick pickup -- milk, cigarettes, beer -- and for midweek runs for pantry staples. An ongoing It's a buck campaign ensures there is always something on sale and helps attract repeat visits from the 60,000 customers who shop Plaid Pantry stores each day.
About a quarter of its stores provide check-cashing services for unbanked and underbanked customers through a partnership with CashWorks, which is a subsidiary of General Electric Co.
Because of Oregon's ban on self-service gasoline, Plaid Pantries sells gasoline at only 12% of its stores. Though gasoline-selling stores represent a minority of the company's locations, Plaid Pantries CEO Joe Girard said gasoline remains a critical part of the business. It brings in a wider variety of customers than just c-store patrons, he told the newspaper.
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