PacWest Energy LLC, a joint venture between Houston-based Shell Oil Products US closed on a deal December 11 with Shell for 54 company-operated sites and to supply wholesale fuels to 42 Seattle-area dealer sites, as previously reported in CSP Daily News.
And just last month, Jacksons acquired 14 Chevron and Texaco sites in Reno (six lessee-dealers [image-nocss] and eight company operations). Jacksons also had acquired four Reno sites earlier this year. John Jackson, CEO of Jacksons said the company has had a presence in Reno for nearly 20 years, and the new additions bring the company to 23 company-ops in that market and "about 35-40 dealers" that the company supplies gasoline to. "We were already there but didn't have a critical mass," he told CSP Daily News. "We didn't have a strong market presence, so it was a strategic move."
The Reno sites have already been rebranded as Jacksons Food Stores. And although the company closed on the Seattle deal just last week, rebranding is nearly complete at those locations since the company had taken over operations there about a month ago. "We closed on a joint venture about a year and a half ago in the Portland/western Oregon market," Jackson said, "and this is a natural extension of that; we're just following the I-5 corridor."
Details of the deal are confidential, but when asked about the kind of deals available today, Jackson said, "We haven't gotten any fire-sale type pricing. I mean we feel the economics were reasonable, but we didn't enjoy any huge depressed values."
The company is now assessing all its sites for enhancements. "We're evaluating each site for an opportunity to redevelop, anywhere from a raze-and-rebuild to a paint-and-powder approach, but our goal is to enhance the image and functionality of the sites."
As to whether there are more acquisitions in the company's near future, Jackson said, "We're looking at things pretty much constantly, but there's nothing that's far enough along that we can talk about."
Based in Meridian, Idaho, PacWest Energy operates and supplies Shell-branded retail locations in the Portland, Ore., market.
Since its founding with a single store in 1975, Jacksons has grown into a chain of more than 150 Chevron-, Texaco- and Shell-branded c-stores and eight quick-serve restaurants in four western states. Jacksons Food Stores is a franchisee of Taco Time, Subway, A&W and Moxie Java. It is the sixth largest of Idaho's privately held corporations, according to the company's website.
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