CST Brands’ acquisition shopping list: valuable real estate, strong culture and scalable foodservice.
San Antonio-based CST Brands Inc. in November unveiled the first of many rebranded Corner Store locations—an effort aimed at uniting the chain under one consumer-facing banner. With the new store concept comes an emphasis on foodservice that’s largely inspired by CST’s 2014 acquisition of 77-store Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes. The rebranded location was the first of five planned Texas stores to feature the full menu from Canastota, N.Y.-based Nice N Easy.
TA adopts a complementary restaurant brand, and Quaker Steak & Lube gets out of bankruptcy.
TravelCenters of America LLC, Westlake, Ohio, continued its buying bender with the acquisition of the Quaker Steak & Lube restaurant chain for $25 million. TA intends to convert some of its existing full-service restaurants to the Quaker Steak & Lube brand while expanding both the franchise program and the number of company-operated restaurants (Quaker Steak & Lube has more than 50 locations, most of which are franchised, in 16 states).
Kwik Trip shutters four proprietary Hearty Platter Restaurants, rolls out Denny’s in their place.
La Crosse, Wis.-based Kwik Trip is bringing iconic restaurant brand Denny’s to four of its Wisconsin and Iowa sites. “We believe the upper Midwest is an underpenetrated region for Denny’s,” said John Miller, CEO of Denny’s, in the company’s third-quarter earnings call in November. “This partnership will help us accelerate restaurant development in that region.” The locations are full-service restaurants offering everything in the Denny’s experience, Grand Slams and all.
Can Texas’ Laredo Taco Company translate to the East Coast? Sunoco hopes so.
Like CST’s purchase of Nice N Easy, Sunoco LP, Corpus Christi, Texas, got not only a solid company with the acquisition of Susser Holdings Corp., but it also clinched a formidable foodservice brand with Susser’s Laredo Taco Company. Now Sunoco is bringing the Texas brand to the D.C. area. Core States Group, an engineering and architectural firm, filed a letter in late 2015 with Loudoun County with plans to update a Flagstaff Plaza Sunoco location in Ashburn, Va., with a Laredo Taco Company.
The Big Biz of Franchising
Top franchise companies are driving growth, according to Technomic’s Top 400 Franchise Report. The 200 largest franchisees grew sales 8.2% in 2014, 2.5 times the rate of the top 500 chains. Unit growth among these companies was three times higher than that of their franchisors. Where else are the gains?
6.5%
--Overall unit growth for top 400 franchise operators in 2014, now nearly 33,000 locations
$31.1 billion
--Total 2014 sales for the top 200 franchise companies
41%
--Sales for franchises Nos. 1-25
59%
--Sales for franchises Nos. 26-200
Sources: Restaurant Business, Technomic
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