CHICAGO -- The same day CSP Daily News offered an analysis of the growing interest in convenience store consolidation in the Midwest, Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard was out making it happen.
On Friday, a day after announcing its purchase of the 54-store Holland Oil chain based in Akron, Ohio, Couche-Tard signed an agreement with Shell Oil Products US to lease and operate 31 stores in the Chicago metropolitan area, according to the company's first-quarter fiscal 2007 financial results.
Attempts to contact either company [image-nocss] for further information yesterday were unsuccessful; however, the quarterly report said the 31 stores will be re-imaged to Circle K and will continue to sell Shell fuel.
The deal was presaged in late February, when Couche-Tard, through a wholly owned subsidiary, signed an agreement to purchase 40 convenience stores and to assume an additional 13 fuel supply contracts in the Indianapolis area from Shell Oil Products US. In that deal, as previously reported in CSP Daily News, Couche-Tard said it would buy the land and buildings for 29 stores, buy the land and lease the premises for one and lease the other 10.
When asked in March if additional deals between Couche-Tard and Shell might be forthcoming, Darrell Davis, vice president of operations for Laval, Quebec-based Couche-Tard's Midwest Division, told CSP Daily News, I think there could be additional opportunities with Shell. At Couche-Tard, we're an acquisition company, and whether it's Shell or any other opportunity, we're certainly looking for good locations that fit within our markets.
Friday's Shell deal puts Couche-Tard's Midwest Division over the 700-store mark for the first time.
As noted last week, these recent deals signal growing interest in consolidation in the Midwest. The trend was further demonstrated by 7-Eleven Inc. purchase of the White Hen c-store chain earlier this month. Also, major oil companies, including Shell and BP, have shown a desire to sell at least some of their company-owned sites in several Midwest markets.
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