Petroleum Marketing Group Inc. has acquired 43 company-operated convenience stores with fuel from Li’l Thrift Food Marts Inc., dba Short Stop, based in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
All of the stores operate under the Short Stop brand. They offer a variety of fuel options including 19 locations that market Exxon-branded fuel, five sites that feature the Marathon brand, 18 sites that offer unbranded fuel and one location that does not offer fuel. A related entity, Ace Fueling LLC, will continue to serve as a common carrier hauler for the Short Stop stores.
Vance B. Neal founded Li’l Thrift in 1971 with a single store in Burlington, North Carolina. The company nearly doubled in size in 1985 with the acquisition of E-Z Shop, a 23-store North Carolina convenience retailer and in 2004, added seven Exxon-branded locations to its portfolio, which provided an expanded presence in the Fayetteville market.
Independent investment bank Matrix Capital Markets Group Inc., Richmond, Virginia, provided merger and acquisition advisory services to Li’l Thrift, which included valuation advisory, marketing the business through a confidential, structured sale process and negotiation of the transaction. David Corbett, director; Spencer Cavalier, co-head of Matrix’s Downstream Energy & Convenience Retail Investment Banking Group; John Mickelinc, senior associate; and Alexander Rakos, senior analyst, managed the transaction.
“I would like to thank David, Spencer, John and Alex for all that they have done in helping our family exit the convenience-store business that we have been involved in for over 50 years,” Chris Neal, president of Li’l Thrift, said. “Matrix was instrumental in shaping the way we went to market, how we evaluated bids and eventually choosing PMG as the successful bidder. … We believe that PMG will continue the same family traditions that have guided us over the years.”
Founded in 2001, PMG, based in Falls Church, Virginia, is one of the largest fuel distributors in the Eastern United States. It has a network of more than 1,200 sites with locations from Maine to Florida. In April 2022, PMG acquired the travel centers, convenience stores and quick-service restaurants (QSRs) of Davis Oil Co. Inc., Sussex, Virginia. In November 2022, PMG acquired Fayetteville-based Holt Oil Co. Inc.’s 19 petroleum marketing and convenience stores and wholesale dealer business.
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