PADUCAH, Ky. -- Selling its six convenience stores in western Kentucky but retaining four in southern Illinois, Golightly & Long LLC, dba Cheers Food & Fuel, sold the Kentucky locations to TravelCenters of America LLC (TA), Jenny Arigno, a spokesperson for Golightly & Long, told CSP Daily News.
Paducah, Ky.-based Golightly & Long sells BP, Exxon and proprietary-branded fuel. With the c-stores, it also offers a variety of foodservice brands including Arby's, Huddle House, Noble Roman's and Hunt Brothers Pizza.The company donates a percentage of every gallon at participating locations to local schools and charities.
As reported in a 21st Century Smoke/CSP Daily News Flash, the deal also included two Arby's restaurants, one connected to a c-store and one freestanding unit, and one liquor store.
Arigno would not disclose the transaction's price tag or the reason for the sale.
St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Raymond James Convenience Store & Fuel Products Distribution Investment Banking handled the Cheers transaction, which closed in January 2015.
TravelCenters of America, Westlake, Ohio, is a leading travel center business in 43 states and Canada operating under the TA and Petro Stopping Centers brands. With more than 250 convenient full-service locations off interstate highway exits, TA and Petro Stopping Centers offer customers diesel and gasoline fueling services, more than 500 full-service and quick-service restaurants, 24-hour convenience stores, heavy-truck maintenance services, RoadSquad Connect emergency roadside service, Reserve-It truck parking reservations and other services within large, high-traffic facilities.
Along with its nationwide travel center network, TA operates gas stations and convenience stores in Kentucky and Tennessee under the Minit Mart name.
TA CEO Thomas O'Brien recently told analysts that following its 2013 purchase of the 31 Minit Mart c-stores from Fred's Minit Mart LCC, the company is looking at additional convenience-store deals.
"The pipeline of acquisition activity … in the truckstop space is modest," he said during the company's earnings call in June 2014. But on the convenience store side, "We're looking at a number of additional groups of c-stores and whether something comes about or not, time will tell. We're certainly on the c-store side competitively."
O'Brien said he sees a "fair amount of activity and opportunity in that 20-to-50-store … range" of Minit Mart.
Merger and acquisitions specialists Raymond James provides a full range of advisory and capital-raising solutions to petroleum distributors, retailers and related suppliers and service providers located throughout the United States. It has relationships with equity investors, specialty lenders, sale-leaseback providers and other capital sources serving the industry. Raymond James is one of the most active investment banks in the convenience store and fuel products distribution sector, closing on 22 transactions since 2011 with a total transaction value of more than $2.3 billion.
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