The Biggest C-Store M&A Moves of 2022

CHICAGO — A year of megadeals it wasn’t. There were no massive 7-Eleven-Speedway deals. But the 2022 mergers-and-acquisitions activity was still robust, and it was largely characterized by several well-known, frequent acquirers adding more retail convenience stores in new and existing markets to their burgeoning portfolios.

Click through for the years’ M&A highlights …

In September, GPM Investments LLC agreed to acquire 350 wholesale and retail sites, including 150 company-operated c-stores under the Flash Market banner and several other brands in Alabama and Mississippi from Transit Energy Group (TEG), Greenville, S.C., for $375 million. The deal also includes fuel supply rights to 200 dealers, commercial, government and industrial customers and bulk storage, distribution and transportation assets in the southeastern United States.

In October, GPM agreed to acquire Pride Convenience Holdings LLC, which operates 31 convenience stores in Massachusetts and Connecticut, for $230 million. Private equity firm Arclight Capital Partners LLC, Boston, had acquired Pride in early 2022. Pride Stores put the chain up for sale in mid-2021.

In December, GPM agreed to acquire the retail, wholesale and fleet fueling assets of WTG Fuels Holdings LLC, a Midland, Texas-based c-store operator with 24 company-operated Uncle’s Convenience Stores across western Texas, for $140.4 million. The transaction also includes nine independent dealer locations, 57 proprietary Gascard-branded fleet fueling cardlock sites and 52 private cardlock sites.

GPM in April extended by one year its existing $1 billion agreement with real estate investment firm Oak Street Real Estate Capital, a division of Blue Owl Capital, New York The extended agreement provided aggregate availability of $1.15 billion during the second year of the term.

ARKO Corp.’s GPM Investments LLC, Richmond, Va., has executed 20 acquisitions since 2011, and it now has 1,406 company-owned c-stores in 33 states and the District of Columbia. It is No. 6 on CSP’s 2022 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.

Update: In late December, Majors Management added 21 c-stores with its acquisition of Davis Oil in western Michigan and fuel supply contracts with 11 commission marketers. It is the company's first into the state. Also in late December, Majors Management acquired the Maritime Farms convenience stores of Maritime Energy. With 13 locations in midcoast Maine, the acquisition represents Majors Management’s entry into the state.

In November alone, Majors Management LLC made three separate acquisitions.

It acquired six c-stores from Bay Shores Oil Inc., Fairhope, Ala.

It also acquired 10 Chevron-branded c-stores, the dealer wholesale business and the commercial fuels and lubricants business and associated bulk plant facility in East Texas from Morgan Oil Co. Inc., Nacogdoches, Texas.

And it purchased the K&H Truck Plaza in Gilman, Ill., the company’s first foray into Illinois.

Meanwhile, in May, Majors Management sold two bulk plants in Wheeling and New Martinsville, W.Va., and their respective commercial fuels distribution businesses, to Bruceton Farm Service, Morgantown, W.Va., to concentrate on retail.

Lawrenceville, Ga.-based Majors Management is an owner, developer and operator of convenience stores and a distributor of branded motor fuels. The company supplies fuel to more than 1,200 convenience stores.

In June, Refuel Operating Co. LLC acquired two stores in Mississippi from Fikes Wholesale Inc.’s CEFCO Convenience Stores, which divested 50 of its company-operated stores in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama. BreakTime Corner Market LLC acquired 48 of the CEFCO stores.

Also in June,  Refuel closed on the acquisition of assets of Embark Energy LLC. The transaction included 11 company-owned and -operated conveniences stores in the greater Austin, Texas, market operating under the Fast Break brand, along with four company-owned, dealer-operated locations.

In August, Refuel acquired nine locations from two c-store chains in two separate deals. It acquired the assets of Premier Stores Inc., a Greensboro, N.C.-based c-store chain operating under the GreatStops brand. The transaction, which closed on Aug. 2, included six stores in the Greensboro market.

Also in August, Refuel entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of The Whalen Corp., a Raleigh, N.C.-based c-store chain with three stores in the Raleigh-Durham market.

In November, Refuel entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Eagles Enterprise LLC, a Raleigh, N.C.-based c-store chain owned by founders Dilip Gandhi and Manish Gandhi. The transaction included 13 locations in the Raleigh-Durham market in North Carolina.

Charleston, S.C. based Refuel is a retail and wholesale fuel distribution and c-store business established in 2018. It has 175 store and is No. 46 on CSP’s 2022 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.

In January, Global Partners LP completed the purchase, announced in December 2020, of select retail fuel and c-store assets of Consumers Petroleum of Connecticut Inc., Milford, Conn., including 26 company-operated Wheels c-stores in Connecticut. The deal also included fuel supply agreements with 22 sites in Connecticut and New York. As part of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consent order, the company divested seven retail sites.

In February, Global Partners acquired 23 c-stores, 21 company-operated convenience stores and two company-owned dealer-operated stores in Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida, and the wholesale dealer accounts in Virginia and North Carolina, part of a group of 70 total accounts, from Miller Oil Co. Inc., doing business as Millers Energy, Norfolk, Va. Sunshine Gasoline Distributors Inc., Doral, Fla., acquired the wholesale dealer accounts in Florida.

In September, Global Partners acquired 14 Tidewater fuel and c-stores and one commission-marketer location in the Norfolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach areas of Virginia from Richmond, Va.-based Tidewater Convenience.

Waltham, Mass.-based Global Partners is a large regional independent owner, supplier and operator of gas stations and c-stores under several retail brands, including Alltown Fresh, Honey Farms and Wheels. It is No. 26 on CSP’s 2022 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by number of company-owned retail outlets.

The biggest and most significant M&A transaction of 2022 was Shell’s acquisition—announced in October 2021 but completed in June of this year—of 248 c-stores operating in Texas under the Timewise brand from the Houston-based Landmark group of companies. The agreement also included supply agreements with an additional 117 independently operated fuel and convenience sites.

The deal marks Shell’s return to retail after divestment of its company-owned sites in 2004.

Shell Retail and Convenience Operations LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell Oil Products US, Houston.

Many of the gas stations were acquired through a buyout of a joint venture, called Texas Petroleum Group LLC, between Equilon Enterprises LLC (dba Shell Oil Products US) and Landmark Industries. Now fully owned by Shell, TPG held 170 company-owned stations and had supply agreements for another 63 independently operated stations. TPG will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell Retail and Convenience Operations, within Shell’s downstream mobility business, the company said.

Shell Retail and Convenience Operations LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell Oil Products US, Houston. Shell is No. 33 on CSP’s2022 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by total number of company-owned locations.

One M&A deal that didn’t happen this year that would have made 2022 rival 2021 was the possible merger of Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. and EG Group Ltd.

In April, the two convenience retail giants reportedly were in talks for a possible combination that valued EG Group at approximately $16 billion. A union would have created a company with more than $70 billion in annual revenue and approximately 21,000 convenience stores, gas stations, quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and grocery stores in more than 30 countries. It would have brought together Blackburn, U.K.-based EG Group’s network in the United Kingdom, United States, western Europe and Australia with Laval, Quebec-based Couche-Tard’s in the United States, Canada, northern Europe and other countries.

In the United States, it would have brought together Couche-Tard’s more than 7,100 stores primarily under the Circle K and Holiday Stationstores banners and EG America’s more than 1,750 stores under the Cumberland Farms, Certified Oil, Fastrac and Sprint Food Stores brands and former Kroger c-store brands Kwik Shop, Loaf N’ Jug, Minit Mart, Quik Stop, Tom Thumb and Turkey Hill.

Couche-Tard is No. 2 on CSP’s 2022 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count. EG America is No. 4.

Although industry observers believed a combination of the two entities could be a good strategic fit in line with both companies plans, others saw potential regulatory scrutiny as a risk. The merger never went beyond talks.

The $21 billion acquisition of Marathon Petroleum’s Speedway nearly 3,900-store retail network by 7-Eleven in 2020 reverberated into 2022 when in July, 7-Eleven—deep into its integration process—laid off nearly 900 members of its corporate, field and support staffs. In October 2021, 7-Eleven laid off approximately 35 people at Speedway’s headquarters in Enon, Ohio.

Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven operates or franchises more than 13,000 c-stores in the United States, including approximately 9,500 under the 7-Eleven banner, around 3,800 under the Speedway banner and about 500 under the Stripes flag. 7-Eleven is No. 1 on CSP’s2022 Top 202 and 2021 Top 202 rankings of the largest U.S. c-store chains by number of company-owned retail outlets. Speedway was No. 3 on the 2021 ranking.