The year 2025 will probably best be remembered for what it wasn’t—an active year in terms of merger and acquisition activity. The potential acquisition of Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd. by Alimentation Couche-Tard, which had been in the works since 2024, captured much of the attention and headlines over the last 12 to 18 months. However, those discussions came to an abrupt end in July, when Couche-Tard formally withdrew its offer.
Shortly thereafter, Seven & i reaffirmed its intention to file an IPO for 7-Eleven Inc. in North America and also stated its intention to build 1,300 new stores in North America by 2030. 7-Eleven will see new leadership in 2026 as it pursues its new objectives.
However, there were still some significant transactions which took place last year. Perhaps the largest was Sunoco LP’s acquisition of Parkland Corp. for $9.1 billion. Sunoco had been pursuing Parkland for quite some time and finally prevailed. The transaction, which closed in late October, enabled Sunoco to become the largest independent fuel distributor in the Americas.
Another large transaction was Anabi Oil’s acquisition of Green Valley Grocery’s chain of 87 convenience stores in southern Nevada.
- 7-Eleven is No. 1 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. Sunoco LP is No. 96, Anabi Oil is No. 18 and RaceTrac is No. 17.
Perhaps the most surprising acquisition of the year was RaceTrac’s acquisition of Potbelly Corp. for $566 million. That transaction of a large restaurant chain demonstrates the importance of foodservice to the convenience-store industry and represented an acknowledgment by RaceTrac of the benefits and synergies that could be realized from such a combination. It will be interesting to see how RaceTrac grows the Potbelly chain and whether it decides to integrate Potbelly sandwich offerings into its convenience-store network.
The remaining transactions which were publicly reported last year were relatively small by comparison to the deals which were completed over the previous two or three years. There are probably several factors that explain this.
First of all, some transactions simply do not get reported in the trade press. Secondly, there are simply not that many large chains remaining to be acquired after the wave of M&A activity that occurred previously. Finally, many operators we know have been extremely pleased with their operations and financial performance and don’t appear to be in any hurry to exit the industry.
Several operators have either family members in the business or experienced professional managers and seem to be more focused on growing their businesses rather than selling them. The recently enacted One Big Beautiful Tax Bill also provided significant incentives for growth in the convenience-store industry by providing 100% year one depreciation of qualified property such as c-stores acquired and placed in service after Jan. 19, 2025. In addition, fuel margin in 2025 was one of the highest on record, and similar to the prior year, but volumes have been down in most parts of the country.
However, inside sales, and especially foodservice, remain extremely strong and a vital component of the equation for successful convenience stores.
Political and economic factors
A number of political and economic factors are directly affecting the convenience-store industry. The broad array of tariffs which have been imposed on imported goods of all types has made many things more expensive, and some of those costs are being passed on to consumers.
The Federal Reserve reduced interest rates three times during the latter half of 2025, and there is pressure to reduce them further. These reductions have resulted in lower borrowing costs across the board.
Fuel prices at the pump have been at some of their lowest levels in years for many parts of the country, and industry analysts have predicted that average retail gasoline prices will stay below $3 per gallon for each of the next two years, which will likely lead to increased fuel volumes in the future.
On the international front, the war in Ukraine rages on and the conflict in the Middle East continues. There are new threats from Iran and other countries, and the United States continues to look over its shoulder at China and Russia.
The recent capture and arrest of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, and the accompanying U.S. strikes on vessels and oil tankers in the Caribbean, have increased uncertainty. Flooding the U.S. with Venezuelan oil has already had a negative effect on domestic production in the Permian basin and the Dakotas. The administration has stated that U.S. firms would develop Venezuela’s vast oil reserves and recoup stolen oil company money. However, experts have noted that rebuilding their oil infrastructure would require a long-term investment of billions of dollars. It remains to be seen how the drama in Venezuela will play out.
AI seems to dominate the news everywhere and tech stocks are the current darling of Wall Street. Convenience-store operators are spending time and resources to determine how to integrate AI into their operations in positive ways.
The push for EVs during the previous administration has all been abandoned, and car makers and politicians alike have come to realize that it is virtually impossible to force people to change their preferences in automobiles—Americans still love their gasoline powered cars. More importantly, everyone learned fairly quickly that the technology and infrastructure had not kept pace with the EV initiatives that politicians and car makers alike were pushing. As long as oil is relatively plentiful and available at reasonable prices, and there are no tax incentives for purchasing EVs, they will not be an attractive option for the majority of consumers.
Weight loss drugs, or GLP-1, have been a major “game changer” for the convenience-store industry. The advent of highly effective weight loss drugs has changed the landscape for food offerings at both restaurants and convenience stores. Because of these drugs, people are eating less and are much more selective about the types of foods they eat. The restaurant industry has had to adapt quickly to those changes in demand, and the convenience store industry will need to do so as well.
Purchase price multiple trends
Since the majority of transactions which occurred last year were between private companies, purchase price multiples were not reported publicly. However, NRC is aware of a number of other private transactions.
For example, NRC was involved in a couple of transactions last year in the western part of the United States, both of which involved more than 10 stores. Both transactions were at or near double-digit multiples based on store-level EBITDA. In addition, one of them did not include any real estate as part of the transaction.
From what we have heard anecdotally, some of the other reported transactions from last year also were in the high single-digit and low double-digit multiple ranges. Furthermore, the 100% bonus deprecation for qualified convenience store property contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill has provided a significant boost to those looking to make acquisitions or build new stores. These trends bode well for a vibrant and positive environment for M&A activity in the future.
However, as mentioned earlier, there are simply not as many large players left in the industry, and as a result, the universe of potential acquirers gets smaller each year. Private equity is still highly interested in the industry and there are also some other new players who are not currently in the industry that are looking to enter.
Conclusion
Although 2025 was not as active as the previous several years in terms of M&A activity, we have observed an uptick in small to medium size transactions involving 10 to 25 stores.
Many of the larger chains have elected to optimize their portfolios by selling off individual stores or markets that were not profitable or didn’t make sense for other reasons. Many of the transactions involving the largest remaining chains already took place over the past couple of years. Most of the larger remaining chains all seem to be pursuing growth strategies based on both organic growth and acquisitions, while a few of the other large chains have historically been more focused on growth solely through new store development.
Based on the activity over the past few years, it appears likely that these trends will continue for the foreseeable future. However, the extremely favorable environment for our industry—such as strong fuel margins, dynamic inside sales growth due primarily to foodservice initiatives and high purchase price multiples, coupled with lower interest rates and favorable tax treatment for newly acquired c-stores—should cause more owners and operators to give serious consideration to a sale of all or some portion of their businesses, especially those legacy owners without younger generation family members to take over the business.
With all of these factors coalescing right now, it will be interesting to see how all of this plays out this year.
Dennis L. Ruben is executive managing director of NRC Realty & Capital Advisors LLC, Chicago. Reach him at dennis.ruben@nrc.com.
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