EZ Energy will operate 17 of these c-stores under the ampm franchise brand, 17 will be converted to EZ Energy's convenience store brand, Easy Trip, five [image-nocss] will be operated by third parties under their own respective brands and EZ Energy will operate Subway restaurants within seven of the stores.
With this acquisition, EZ Energy now operates 68 retail gas stations and c-stores and supplies motor fuel under contract to 23 third-party operators northern Ohio and the Pittsburgh marketing areas. Eli Zahavi, chairman of EZ Energy USA, said, "Our strategy is to operate top-quality stores that sell products under excellent brands and the combination of BP, ampm and Easy Trip are no exception to this strategy. In fact, during the past 18 months that we have been an operator of ampm in Pittsburgh, EZ Energy has been awarded the 'Rookie of the Year' award and several other awards from ampm for having the most improved gasoline sales, ampm sales and high quality standards."
The acquisition occurs at a time when BP is introducing the ampm c-store brand and BP gasoline to the Cleveland market.
In September 2007, EZ Energy began its partnership with BP when it started to acquire retail locations in the Pittsburgh market. Today, EZ Energy operates 26 stores in Pittsburgh under the BP motor fuel brand with 15 of the c-stores operating under the ampm brand and 11 under the Easy Trip brand.
Sean Daley, vice president of Midwest sales of BP Products North America, said, "We are certainly pleased with EZ Energy and how they have demonstrated their ability to grow their business in difficult economic times while representing the BP and ampm brands with the highest level of quality operations.... We are confident that working together, our companies will grow the BP and ampm brands in this market as well as Pittsburgh."
EZ Energy USA, a unit of Ramat Gan, Israel-based EZ Energy Ltd., is an operator of retail motor fuel and c-stores with total estimated sales of $480 million and a distributor/jobber for both the BP and Marathon fuel brands selling approximately 160 million gallons of motor fuel annually. Over the last two years, EZ Energy has grown from its first acquisition of 14 stores to a total of 91 stores today. All of the stores are located in the Pittsburgh and the Northeast and Northcentral Ohio markets.
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