MECHANICSVILLE, Va. -- GPM Investments, which operates about 150 Fas Mart and Shore Stop stores, is planning to buy 57 Double Kwik Markets and convert them to its Fas Mart brand, said The Bristol Herald Courier.
However, while growth-hungry GPM has expressed its desire to snatch up additional stores through smart, targeted acquisitions, the purchase of Double Kwik's assets has not yet been completed. McComas told CSP Daily News via e-mail that his company did not expect to close on the acquisition for at least a couple of weeks.
As reported in CSP Daily News in late September, the estimated $46 million Double Kwik purchase was one of two deals CEO Dave McComas expected to close in the fourth quarter of the year. The other was for a six-store chain in Martinsville, Va.
Double Kwik is owned by Barnette Enterprises, Wise, Va. The company did not return calls for comment by presstime.
Mechanicsville, Va.-based GPM wants to purchase the entire Double Kwik chain and open its stores across southwestern Virginia, McComas told the newspaper. A couple of stores also will open in Tennessee, he added. This is a natural extension of where we're at now. We have stores in Martinsville and Danville [Va.], he said. This is natural growth for us, in this particular market at this particular time.
Of the 57 locations, 55 are gasoline facilities, with brands including Exxon, BP, CITGO, Shell and several others.Double Kwik also operates foodservice franchises at 12 of its c-stores. The turnover of the acquired outlets totaled $132 million in 2006.
We'll probably add one or two new ones [stores]. We're looking at one site in Tennessee right now, in the Tri-Cities area, McComas said.
GPM recently applied for state licenses to sell beer at each store. The company hopes to complete the purchase by year's end, McComas told the Bristol Herald Courier.
Double Kwik Markets was founded in 1960 by Hogue and Verda Barnette. The first store was in Wise. In 1970, Earl Wendell Barnette and Jerry Barnette purchased the business from Hogue and Verda, their parents.From 1970 to 1980, the one store was operated with Wendell, Jerry and their families. In 1981, Double Kwik began expansion by building and buying additional units. In 1994, Jerry Barnette retired and sold his share of the business to Wendell and Brenda Barnette. Double Kwik is currently owned and operated by Earl Wendell Barnette and Brenda K. Barnette.
I've known the folks at Double Kwik for a long time, McComas told the paper. We're hiring all of the Double Kwik folks. That's a really well-run company, and we're hiring their entire management team.
McComas, whose parent company is based in Israel, recently addressed the issue of growing foreign investment into the U.S. market. He told CSP Daily News in September that [the United States] in general is just a good investment opportunity. From their standpoint there has been a lot of successfour [U.S. c-store] companies are now owned by Israelis. I can only speak for us, but our investors have been happy with our progress.
Despite short term volatility in the financial markets, McComas, said at the time that he was bullish on the convenience industry overall. And while the company may take time to digest its most recent acquisitions, McComas predicted continuing growth for Fas Mart/Shore Stop both via organic growth and through acquisition.
The funding for such growth is partially made possible by an infusion of capital into GPM from Russian-Israeli billionaire Arcadi Gaydamak, who earlier this year acquired 65% of Ameris Holdings, majority owner of Petro Group, which owns GPM and its Fas Mart/Shore Stop network.
GPM operates in Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Virginia. GPM also supplies petroleum products to a network of 135 independent third-party dealers.
For more on the issue of global and domestic investment into the c-store channel, watch for November's issue of CSP magazine.
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