Company News

John Carey Is Stepping Down as EG America CEO

Russell Colaco, EG Group’s newly appointed CEO, will assume responsibility for U.S. business
EG America
Logo/EG America

EG Group’s newly appointed CEO, Russell Colaco, will now also assume direct responsibility for EG America. John Carey, EG America’s former CEO, will return to the U.K. and transition to a group senior advisor role. Carey will also retire from the board.

  • EG America is No. 6 on CSP’s 2025 Top 40 Update to the 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. Watch for the full 2025 Top 202 ranking in the June issue of CSP magazine and in CSP Daily News.

"We are very grateful to John, who has done a great job over the last 18 months in driving the performance and strategic positioning of our U.S. operations, the Group’s largest market by sales,” Colaco said. “As I transition into the CEO role, I am pleased that John will be supporting me across the entire business. EG Group is well-positioned for further success, and I look forward to delivering on our attractive growth opportunities and a strong financial performance moving forward."

On April 25, EG Group announced that Mohsin Issa will step down as CEO, and Russell Colaco, previously CFO, will take his place. Issa said that after the sale of its U.K. business, the United States is EG’s largest region by sales, and the company needs its lead executives there. 

In November, global retailer EG Group Ltd., the parent company of EG America LLC, completed the sale of its more than 550-unit U.K. convenience-store and gas station business, Asda, to co-founder Zuber Issa, Mohsin Issa’s bother, who stepped down as co-CEO, leaving Mohsin Issa as sole CEO at the time. 

“Now is the natural time for me to step back from my day-to-day duties at EG as it embarks on the next stage of its journey,” said Mohsin Issa on April 25 in a company news release. “Following the sale of the majority of the U.K. business to Asda, the Group is a very different company now. The U.S. market is now the largest region by sales and represents the biggest growth opportunity and where EG needs to have its lead executives based. I am incredibly proud of what the EG Group has achieved over the last two decades, and I wish the team well and look forward to pursuing my other investment opportunities alongside my increasing focus on investing and mentoring young U.K. entrepreneurs as they build and scale their businesses."

Colaco joined EG Group in June as CFO. Prior to EG, Colaco was CFO of Foster Farms, a poultry company based in Livingston, California, and vice president of corporate development at Camden County, New Jersey-based Campbell Soup Co., according to his LinkedIn profile.

EG Group’s search for a new CFO is “well advanced,” and it “will provide an update on the appointment at an appropriate time,” the company said.

Issa will remain a substantial minority shareholder and remain on the board.

Founded in 2001 by the Issa family, Blackburn, United Kingdom-based EG Group is a gasoline forecourt and retail convenience operator with more than 6,200 sites across the United Kingdom and Ireland, Europe, the United States and Australia. In 2018, EG Group established itself in the United States as EG America by acquiring Kroger’s 762-site c-store network, which included the Turkey Hill, Loaf 'N Jug, Kwik Shop, Tom Thumb and Quik Stop banners. It acquired TravelCenters of America’s Minit Mart convenience-store business in 2018. The portfolio included 225 c-stores. And in 2019, among other acquisitions, EG Group acquired Cumberland Farms and its nearly 660 c-stores in the Northeast and Florida.

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