KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- About half way through its two-year program to divest itself of some stores outside of the Knoxville, Tenn., area and to add and upgrade a number of its facilities, Pilot Corp. has sold 26 of its convenience stores, with more real estate reconciliation to follow.
After working so hard to expand the travel center operations of Pilot Travel Centers, we took a long look at our convenience stores and asked ourselves, What can we do to better serve our home community with our convenience store operations?', said James A. Haslam III, CEO. [image-nocss] And the answer was to have fewerbut betterconvenience stores.
Upon embarking on the divestment program, the company owned 62 c-stores in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee. It now has 36 stores, with a desire to grow to 50 stores in the Knoxville area. Right now, we are looking at six to 10 more sites, Haslam told the Knoxville News Sentinel. To be successful, you have to start with good real estate.
Haslam said when the process is complete, Pilot's remaining locations will be larger, more modern and more customer-friendly. The new stores will range in size from 2,400 square feet to 5,500 square feet and will feature large Grab-N-Go food offerings.
The company also operates 267 travel centers in 40 states. However, Haslam said a reworking of its c-store assetsspecifically, selling stores that were dubbed too small or low-volumewould bring more focus to the Knoxville-based company. Thus, the chain sold 16 of its convenience stores in Virginia and upper East Tennessee last year. It sold an additional 11 sites in the Knoxville area this year to K.J. Singh, a Virginia-based businessman whose company, Federal Business & Investment Consultants LLC, finds property for people who want to get into the c-store business, according to the News Sentinel report.
Even though these stores were marginal for Pilot, they will be good for us, Singh told the newspaper. He added that he sold six of the stores and will lease the remaining four.
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