WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- In its second transaction in less than a week, Sunoco LP has entered into a definitive agreement with Valentine Stores Inc. to purchase its retail convenience-store business serving Upstate New York.
The companies did not reveal the transaction price.
Sunoco also bought 14 Rattlers convenience stores in Texas from Kolkhorst Petroleum Inc.
The current deal included Valentine Stores’ 18 Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes locations. This included two Tim Hortons and five Subway quick-service restaurants inside of these locations, as well as one standalone Tim Hortons and one Tim Hortons in an Express Mart convenience store operated by a third party.
The Watertown, N.Y.-based company is co-owned by brothers John P. and Edward J. Valentine.
In November, John Valentine recently told The Watertown Daily Times that the company was concerned about the potential impact of the state’s $15-an-hour minimum wage increase for fast-food workers. He said the wage increase spurred the company to abandon plans for two new Nice N Easy stores.
At the time, Valentine said he was concerned that the wage increase for fast-food workers could be a major blow for the company’s quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and Tim Hortons. He said the restaurants, located in areas that traditionally don’t support fast-food establishments, might not be profitable enough to stay open as the wage increase takes effect.
As reported in a McLane/CSP Daily News Flash, the companies said they anticipate that the transaction will close in the second quarter of 2016, subject to confirmatory due diligence and other customary conditions.
Robert Valentine of Trefethen Advisors LLC, Scottsdale, Ariz., is serving as advisor to Watertown Valentine Stores in this transaction.
CST Brands Inc., based in San Antonio, acquired Nice N Easy, Canastota, N.Y., in late 2014.
Houston-based Sunoco LP is a master limited partnership (MLP) that operates approximately 1,340 convenience stores (including APlus, Stripes, Aloha Island Mart and Tigermarket brands) and retail fuel sites and distributes motor fuel to convenience stores, independent dealers, commercial customers and distributors located in 30 states at approximately 6,800 sites. It is a unit of Dallas-based MLP Energy Transfer Partners (ETP).
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