Five former Kwik Shop gas stations in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, area leased and operated by Brew Oil under the Sinclair brand have closed, reported the Corridor Business Journal.
Signs posted on the doors of the five locations in Cedar Rapids and nearby Hiawatha indicated that the locations are “permanently” closed, and inventory has been removed from the stores, the newspaper said. The signs did not indicate the reason for the closures.
Yellow tape was wrapped around the gas pumps at some locations, added a report by local radio station KHAK.
The five stores were sold to Brew Oil in separate transactions in January and February, according to the report, citing the Cedar Rapids assessor’s records. The adjusted transaction amounts ranged from $1.02 million to $1.18 million, it said.
The stores had been gradually rebranded from Kwik Shop to Sinclair, a process completed in recent months with the addition of new signage at all five locations, the report said.
The Kwik Shop stores were among the locations that EG Group acquired from Cincinnati-based Kroger. The Blackburn, U.K.-based convenience retailer established itself in the United States in 2018 as EG America by purchasing the supermarket retailer’s 762-site c-store network, which also included Loaf N’ Jug, Quik Stop, Tom Thumb and Turkey Hill c-stores. EG Group also acquired TravelCenters of America’s Minit Mart c-store business 2018. The portfolio included 225 c-stores. And in 2019, among other acquisitions, EG Group acquired Cumberland Farms and its nearly 660 c-stores in the Northeast and Florida, and EG America now has more than 1,750 sites across 33 states, under numerous brands, with headquarters in Westborough, Massachusetts.
Storm Lake, Iowa-based Brew Oil has more than 20 locations in northwest Iowa. The company did not respond to a CSP request for comment.
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