WESTLAKE, Ohio -- With an eye toward growing its Minit Mart network of convenience stores even more, TravelCenters of America LLC has completed the acquisition of four Meiners’ Market c-stores in Kansas and Missouri from Meiners Corp.
Meiners has two additional stores. The Kansas City, Mo.-based company did not respond to CSP Daily News requests for comment.
TravelCenters of America said it expects to rebranded the newly acquired c-stores as Minit Marts and that they will undergo improvements in coming months.
“Our vision for this brand is it will be bright and cheery with extremely clean restrooms,” company spokesperson Tom Liutkus, told The Kansas City Star. “We pride ourselves on great coffee. We also pride ourselves on great customer service.”
He said the company plans to rebrand its travel center locations to Minit Marts so they are more recognizable to customers who are traveling.
The expansion of the TravelCenters of America’s convenience-store empire was among the most-read stories in CSP Daily News for 2015.
The company began its expansion into the c-store space when it initially purchased 31 Minit Mart stores in the Bowling Green, Ky., area in 2013. During first-quarter 2015, it acquired 26 convenience stores in three separate transactions including 19 Best Oil Little Stores in March 2015, mostly in Minnesota. In May 2015, it acquired 19 convenience stores principally in Kansas and Missouri from Overland Park, Kansas-based Gas-Mart USA. It acquired 33 c-stores in Illinois with the purchase of Gardner, Ill.-based MKM Oil Co.’s Fast N Fresh chain.
During the company’s second-quarter 2015 earnings call, CEO Thomas O’Brien said that TravelCenters of America agreed to acquire 123 additional convenience stores in six separate transactions through the end of the year.
Among these were seven Stop-A-Sec convenience stores in Wisconsin from Luck, Wis.-based Seck Enterprises and 10 c-stores in Ohio that it acquired in December from Stop’n Go of Medina Inc., Medina, Ohio.
“Our convenience-store portfolio will have grown from 34 locations principally in one state at the beginning of the year to over 200 locations in 11 principally Midwest states,” said O’Brien.
Westlake, Ohio-based TravelCenters of America's 253 full-service travel centers operate under the TravelCenters of America, TA, Petro Stopping Centers and Petro brands in 43 U.S. states and in Canada. The facilities include diesel and gasoline fueling, restaurants, truck repair facilities, travel and convenience stores and other services. The company also operates convenience stores, principally under the Minit Mart brand, in 11 states.
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