CHICAGO -- Chicago is a retail market famous for its adherence to tradition. Just ask Macy's. It recently purchased the Marshall Field's chain and quickly began rebranding the stores, meeting with a considerable amount of consumer resistance and ill will. But 7-Eleven seems to be taking a different tack with White Hen Pantry.
White Hen stores will soon begin to disappear from the Chicago-area landscape as 7-Eleven Inc. sets out to assimilate the once locally owned chain, reported The Business Ledger, although the conversion strategy calls for a more [image-nocss] gradual, franchisee- and customer-friendly changeover, even allowing some of White Hen's more popular products to possibly remain available following a market analysis.
7-Eleven purchased Lombard, Ill.-based White Hen Pantry Inc. last August in its largest acquisition in 20 years. The deal, valued at an estimated $35 million, made the Chicago area one of the Dallas-based convenient giant's top five markets, the report said.
Before the acquisition the Chicago market ranked No. 8 in store number for 7-Eleven, Margaret Chabris, public relations director for Dallas-based 7-Eleven, told the newspaper. Because we doubled in store count as a result of the acquisition, Chicagoland is now our No. 4 market.
White Hen operates and franchises 206 stores in the Chicago area and northwest Indiana and licenses another 55 in the Boston area. With the acquisition of the White Hen chain, 7-Eleven now operates, franchises and licenses more than 7,100 stores in North America.
The purpose of the deal was to develop the 7-Eleven brand name, and, consequently, all White Hen stores will be rebranded, but the conversion is designed to be slow and store-by-store so the company can integrate both personnel and the brand preference of area customers, said Chabris. For example, White Hen does a great coffee business, so 7-Eleven will be modifying its brand to meet Chicagoans' taste for a stronger brew, she said. This change in 7-Eleven stores happened the week of January 15.
White Hen also has several fresh food offerings, with delis at numerous locations, but 7-Eleven has yet to announce if these stores will keep these services under the new branding.
White Hen franchise owners will have the option to continue to operate under the current name until the original franchise agreement runs out, according to the report; however, some area owners are already beginning to switch over. White Hen stores are franchised, and 7-Eleven is honoring those franchise agreements, said Chabris. At the same time, we have offered White Hen franchisees the opportunity to apply for a 7-Eleven franchise, and some are doing that in advance of the expiration of their White Hen franchise agreement. There is not a date when all the stores will be converted. It is a slow, methodical process that can take up to several years.
As stores begin to switch over to the new brand, it is possible that some will close because many White Hens and 7-Elevens are in proximity to each other, in some cases even at the same intersection, the report said. Chabris said such a situation will be resolved by store performance and whether both stores can maintain healthy sales.
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