An impressive 4,200 convenience stores—almost 3% of the entire channel—traded hands last year.
In terms of numbers, that’s about half of 7-Eleven U.S. and Canada.
And after five mega-deals that included the quiet denouement of The Pantry, a mind-numbing calm has settled, with retailers expecting future transactions to involve anything and anyone.
That’s because pressure on major players to act is only intensifying. Everything from low interest rates to haywire multiples are forcing buyers to break tradition, deal outside of supply-chain boundaries and grow with the kind of speed unseen since the doomed rollups of the 1990s.
Not everyone will win, of course. While billion-dollar transactions dominate the headlines, deep-pocketed buyers are tempered. They bid up assets that make sense, and their drivers are as specific and varied as their business models.
CSP takes a close look at this unprecedented climate, exploring the fault lines that spurred recent mammoth buys and what’s in store for a shell-shocked but undeniably optimistic channel.
Part 1--The Buy: Best That Money Can Buy
Part 2--The Sell: How to Marry a Billionaire
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