SALISBURY, Md. -- Cato Inc. has acquired four Gordy TigerMart convenience stores with gasoline from J. William Gordy Fuel Co., the company has announced.
Gordy Fuel has sold its company-operated retail network in the Salisbury market on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and exited the retail business.
The four high-volume, Exxon-branded sites—three in Salisbury, one in Delmar—feature modern convenience stores with beer caves and a Subway or Hardee's quick-service restaurant (QSR).
Cato operates 14 Goose Creek food and fuel stores on the Delmarva Peninsula, located in all three states (Delaware, Maryland and Virginia). With this deal, Cato has a total of 18 c-stores. Along with Goose Creek, the company’s retail division operates a total of 22 Arby’s, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Subway free-standing QSRs.
"It was a great acquisition for us, right in the heart of our trade area. Both companies are ExxonMobil distributors and have operated in the Maryland and Delaware markets for many years," Greg Stutzman, vice president of retail wtih Cato, told CSP Daily News. "The sites will continue to operate under the TigerMart name and sell Exxon-branded fuels. ... But at some point down the road, rebranding is a possibility."
Gordy Fuel owned most of the locations on a fee-simple basis.
The Delmar, Del.-based company did not sell its wholesale distribution business that supplies Exxon- or Sunoco-branded motor fuel products to independently owned and operated dealer locations in the Washington, D.C., market. This segment of Gordy Fuel will continue to operate as an independent entity.
Petroleum Capital and Real Estate LLC, Richmond, Va., provided mergers and acquisition advisory services to Gordy Fuel throughout the transaction and set up a confidential marketing program that included a multiple-round competitive bidding process to maximize the potential market value of the company’s retail assets.
E.E. Gordy, the grandfather of the current CEO and president of the company, Bill Gordy, established J. William Gordy Fuel Co. in the early 1900s to provide coal and ice services to customers in Delmar. In 1938, E.E. Gordy's son, J. William Gordy, diversified the business by adding heating oil. He then decided to eliminate the coal and ice business in 1960 to focus on the growing heating-oil business.
As the business transferred to the next generation, Bill Gordy joined the company in the mid-1970s and began running day-to-day operations in 1978. In 1983, Gordy Fuel became a branded Exxon distributor, creating the c-store brand that became Gordy TigerMart. In 2002, Gordy Fuel also became a Sunoco distributor.
Salisbury, Md.-based Cato is a diversified energy company in the gasoline, heating oil and lubricants business. Elliott T. Cato founded Cato Gas & Oil Inc. in 1960.
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