The lull in merger-and-acquisition activity in 2025 is fading quickly, as a growing number of successful deals surface in the first half of 2026.
This past spring, multiple acquisitions came to light, most notably, Dallas-based Sunoco LP announcing three significant transactions, purchasing 56 Duck-Thru stores from Jernigan Oil, Ahoskie, North Carolina; 36 locations from Pops Mart, Cayce, South Carolina; and 48 gas stations and convenience stores from Capitol Petroleum Group LLC, Springfield, Virginia. Altogether, 140 locations.
While speaking both to its global aspirations and the closing of its purchase of Calgary, Alberta-based Parkland Corp. in 2025, Sunoco leadership said the United States will remain the foundation of its retail platform.
“[Last] year, we did over 10 small bolt-on acquisitions in the U.S. alone,” said Joseph Kim, president and CEO of Sunoco LP. “And we could have probably done a lot more but we kind of slowed down because we had the Parkland acquisition.”
Beyond Sunoco’s activity in 2026, Houston, Texas-based Brake Time Convenience Market (BTCM) bought 14 stores from Beaumont, Texas-based FastLane, and Monfort Cos., Denver, Colorado, completed a multi-year effort to sell off its roughly 80 locations, with buyers that included 7-Eleven, Irving, Texas; Azan Petro LLC, Gambrills, Maryland; Diamond Jubilee Oil LLC, Farmington, New Mexico; and Kent Kwik, Midland, Texas.
The activity in the first half of 2026 may signal the end of an unofficial pause in c-store M&A, after the takeover dance between the two largest U.S. convenience chains ended last July. When Circle K parent company Alimentation Couche-Tard made its bold takeover bid for the Tokyo-based owners of 7-Eleven Inc. in 2024, the potential of the No. 2 and No. 1 largest U.S. convenience chains making a single behemoth shook the industry to its retail core. When the offers and counter moves abruptly ended in 2025 with Laval, Quebec-based Couche-Tard breaking off the charge, the heat cooled and Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd. announced new goals for 7-Eleven in the United States, inclusive of an initial public offering (IPO), leadership changes and the intention to add 1,300 more stores in North America by 2030.
“The potential acquisition of Seven & i … captured much of the attention and headlines over the past couple of years,” said Dennis Ruben, executive managing director, NRC Realty and Capital Advisors LLC, Chicago. “We did not see a real blockbuster deal [in 2025], as we have seen in previous years.”
That’s not to say M&A stopped. As noted, Sunoco closed on its acquisition of Parkland for $9.1 billion, with the almost year-long courtship ending last October. Once the deal closed, Sunoco became the largest independent fuel distributor in the Americas.
Other 2025 acquisition closings came with Alimentation Couche-Tard closing on its purchase of 270 GetGo and WetGo locations from Giant Eagle Inc., Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania; Worcester, Massachusetts-based Nouria Energy closing its purchase of Savannah, Georgia-based Enmarket and its 133 stores; and Upland, California-based Anabi Oil’s acquiring Henderson, Nevada-based Green Valley Grocery and its 87 locations.
But by far the most out-of-the-box transaction of 2025 was Atlanta-based RaceTrac purchasing the fast-casual sandwich chain, Potbelly Corp., Chicago, for $566 million. The two companies have “complementary strengths,” RaceTrac officials said in a news release, including “core capabilities in real estate, franchising, operations, food innovation and marketing.”
RaceTrac’s acquisition speaks to how central foodservice has become to the industry, with chains like Carmi, Illinois-based Huck’s Market designing stores and building entire loyalty programs around foodservice.
“It’s a shift that happened to us a long time ago,” said Murat Tokad, president and CEO of Martin & Bayley Inc., which owns the Huck’s convenience-store chain. Speaking about acquisitions specifically, he said, “If there’s no kitchen, it’s a big no-no for us. We have massive stores with kitchens built for volume. We prepare all food in house. It’s our future.”
Dynamics of inertia
For Huck’s, taking on assets that others built is a non-starter, with much of their new-to-industry (NTI) growth occurring beneath the waves of M&A. But even for companies that grow through acquisition, several circumstances in 2025 gave buyers and sellers reason for pause.
The introduction of President Donald Trump’s tariff policy was a “significant shock to the overall stock market and had a chilling effect on M&A,” said Roger Woodman, managing director, Raymond James, St. Petersburg, Florida. “But when the administration softened its rhetoric, the stock market began setting records and M&A rebounded.”
Other factors unique to 2025 will continue to stir the mix, observers say. For instance, changes in tax law will allow companies to claim 100%, year-one depreciation of qualified property, such as c-stores, acquired and placed in service after Jan. 19, 2025, Ruben of NRC said. At the same time, he said fuel margins in 2025 were the highest on record, keeping potential sellers from leaving the business.
But as always with fuel prices, volatility is a given. With the United States taking military action against Iran this year, oil prices went over $100 a barrel to levels “unseen” in years, according to Ruben, leading to increases at the pump by as much as 60 cents a gallon. Though ceasefire talks were in the works by press time in late April, the volatility may affect everything from margins to traffic both outside and inside the store, he said.
“Although the administration contends that the war will be ‘short lived,’ it remains to be seen whether the effects on oil and gasoline prices will also be short lived." -Dennis Ruben, NRC Realty and Capital Advisors LLC
“Although the administration contends that the war will be ‘short lived,’ it remains to be seen whether the effects on oil and gasoline prices will also be short lived,” Ruben said.
Rising Sunoco
Although it’s not reflected on this year’s Top 202 list, which only includes transactions completed in 2025, Sunoco Retail LLC spread its empire through the Carolinas in early 2026 with the Jernigan and Pops Mart locations, totaling 92 stores. Then further north, it acquired 48 gas stations and convenience stores from Capitol Petroleum Group LLC, with those facilities scattered throughout the greater New York area and branded Shell, Exxon, Mobil and Citgo.
In the latter deal, “numerous regional and national marketers were involved in the confidential bidding process,” said John Flippen, managing director at Petroleum Capitol and Real Estate (PetroCapRE), the West Friendship, Maryland-based firm that advised on the acquisition. “This was the perfect time for [Capitol Petroleum Group] to sell these strategic retail sites in what is still a very favorable marketplace for operators interested in selling assets and/or exiting the industry.”
Sunoco admits it could have done more in 2025, were it not for its $9.1 billion acquisition of Canadian fuel distributor and convenience retailer Parkland Corp., which included 650 retail outlets and 1,830 dealer sites. Parkland USA had 196 stores in the United States.
“When you combine the two businesses together, our diversified portfolio spans across the U.S., Canada, the greater Caribbean and Europe,” Sunoco CEO Kim said on a spring earnings call, according to an AlphaSense transcript. “We will deliver over 15 billion gallons of refined products. Scale is vital in our business, and we are now the largest fuel distributor in the Americas. Specifically, within our midstream and fuel distribution portfolio, the Parkland addition greatly enhances our position in the Atlantic basin.”
Kim expected “more than $250 million” in synergies, promising to provide, “more precision and timing when we complete the process,” he said.
Kim went further into Sunoco’s growth plans, sounding bullish not only in the U.S., but globally.
He noted a growth guidance of $500 million in what he called “bolt-on” acquisitions, or purchases to add onto its existing c-store network.
“We could probably do that alone in the U.S.,” he said on the earnings call. “Then you add on Canada, Greater Caribbean and you add on Europe, you can see why we think that providing guidance of doing at least $500 million, we think is a floor and is very reasonable for us for next year and for multiple years to come.”
Full Circle K
The Sunoco case shows that while the rumblings between two industry giants in Circle K and 7-Eleven may have quieted the larger field, the big players never stopped. That may be the moral of the takeover-not-taken story with regards to Circle K. Even though the company’s aggressive courtship of 7-Eleven failed, its acquisition machine just kept churning.
In 2025, the chain closed on the $1.57 billion deal for GetGo Café + Market, absorbing 270 GetGo and WetGo locations from Giant Eagle Inc. It also closed a deal to buy 20 c-stores and travel centers it bought from Hutchinson Oil Co. Inc., Elk City, Oklahoma, as well as on a deal for two stores from Dusterhoft Family Stores, Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Of course, the successful deals closed in 2025 could never negate the time, focus and energy both companies spent on that epic battle for c-store dominance. For its part, Circle K blamed its $47.2 billion failed bid for 7-Eleven on Seven & i. In public statements, Circle K officials said, “There has been no sincere or constructive engagement from Seven & i that would facilitate the advancement of any proposal.”
Circle K leadership balked at 7-Eleven’s counterargument that it did indeed consider the Circle K proposal “seriously.” Instead, Alain Bouchard, founder and executive chairman of the board, and Alex Miller, president CEO of Alimentation Couche-Tard, said publicly that Seven & i executives “engaged in a calculated campaign of obfuscation and delay, to the great detriment of Seven & i and its shareholders.”
So, on July 11, 2025, Circle K officials withdrew their proposal, ending a takeover process that began almost a year earlier.
For its part, leadership at Seven & i said Circle K’s comments were “highly misleading” and that the Canada-based chain did not take antitrust concerns seriously. Officials said Circle K mischaracterized their level of engagement and pointed to “the significant hurdles this transaction faced that [Circle K was] not committed to resolving.”
On the issue of divestment, Seven & i officials said, “We did everything we could to find a divestiture solution, recognizing the extraordinary challenge. [But] … Couche-Tard did not identify a viable strategic buyer who would meet with the [Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC)] approval. … the only potential buyers that emerged were private equity firms, which are not viewed as desirable buyers by the FTC.”
In its withdrawal letter to Seven & i, Circle K said they had “received multiple indications of interest with respect to the divesture portfolio, each from highly experienced and credible buyers.”
But the letter went on to say that work teams created to do further diligence failed to do so and even though Circle K offered data to secure buyer interest, they “have seen no progress toward gathering information to facilitate the next phase of buyer engagement.”
Cleanup on aisle 7-Eleven
With Circle K officially ending its overture, Seven & i now had to prove to its shareholders that it could increase its stock value beyond what a merger with Circle K would have accomplished. To that end, Seven & i said it is “moving forward with unwavering focus to execute our standalone value creation plan and unlock the value of our businesses.”
During this period, the company sold its superstore business and initiated management changes that included replacing Ryuichi Isaka, president and CEO of Seven & i, with Stephen Dacus, who was chairman of the board and lead independent outside director for the company.
In addition to these steps, management announced moves to boost performance metrics. One prong of the plan is to open approximately 1,300 new large-format, food-focused stores in the United States by 2030. The new plans include the equipment needed to create distinctive food offerings to differentiate 7-Eleven from the competition.
But probably the most significant aspect of plan was an IPO, originally set for the second half of 2026. The company has since pushed back the date to 2027. While the company stated its confidence in the IPO, it simultaneously reported that same-store sales at 7-Eleven declined 0.4% during fiscal year 2025, with the company forecasting a same-store sales increase of 2% for fiscal year 2026.
“In North America, although the economy remained robust, personal consumption also began to soften, particularly among low-income households, as inflation continued to weigh on spending,” the company reported.
Then this past spring, documents from Seven & i’s financial reports disclosed that it intended to sell 645 underperforming locations, while at the same time, opening only 205 larger format stores in fiscal 2026. The disclosure called into question the ability of the company to meet shareholder expectations comparable to a merger with Circle K.
Under the radar
How the big guys play the M&A game often has little to do with how many small-to-midsized chains quietly grow, with some employing a combination of acquisition and new builds to expand their networks. Mickey Blazer, executive vice president of pharmacy and fuel operations for K-VA-T Food Stores, Abingdon, Virginia, said they often purchase locations in a new market and fill in some of the gaps in the geographic area with new builds.
In 2025, they purchased three stores in Birmingham, Alabama, which was a new market for K-VA-T. The chain had 141 locations as of Jan. 1, and plans to build new locations in Birmingham to solidify its foothold.
“Acquisitions will continue to be part of our growth plan." -Mickey Blazer, K-VA-T Food Stores
“Acquisitions will continue to be part of our growth plan,” Blazer said. “We’re always looking for opportunities for acquisitions as part of our growth plan and hope to have more in the future.”
What bolsters the company’s growth engine is confidence in their business model. In addition to embracing foodservice, they’ve undergone a store-level refresh involving design, product mix and technology.
“We’re trying to build and design our new stores to better meet the needs of our customers,” Blazer said.
Similarly, Family Express, Valparaiso, Indiana, is confident that its evolving business model will support its growth trajectory. Gus Olympidis, CEO of the 86-store chain, said the company is in the middle of a $100 million development plan, which they will follow up with another even bigger one in a year and a half.
He notes that even with its aggressive development plan of NTI locations and adding multiple new kitchens, the company remains debt free, which he said is a clear advantage for a chain intent on growth.
The company recently opened four stores in a four-month period. “[We have a] predictable expectation of softening of fuel velocity over the years, but we are evolving. We are becoming a restaurant and because of that, we are building large stores,” he said.
While Family Express does pursue acquisitions, they have found coming just shy of winning in recent bids. “It’s not like the Olympics. You don’t get a medal for second,” Olympidis said.
Building next gen
Whether acquiring or building from the ground up, growth-minded chains have typically developed strong, internal teams that can take advantage of new opportunities. Steve Spinks, chairman and CEO of Spinx Co., Greenville, South Carolina, said the markets they operate in are seeing distinct population growth. Cities like Charleston, Columbia and Greenville in South Carolina, and Asheville, North Carolina, are becoming popular places for people to live and for businesses to relocate.
The company opened five new stores and a car wash in 2025 and plans to open six next year and seven the year after that.
“We’re fortunate in that we have a strong operating business and a strong team,” Spinks said. “They’re ready for new challenges, and as we develop leaders in the company, we’re opening new stores and creating new opportunities.”
Companies that are embracing the challenge of an evolving convenience business have most likely solved the issue of succession, said Terry Monroe, president of American Business Brokers and Advisors, Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Many family-owned businesses have Baby Boomer owners and family members who don’t want to run the business anymore.
“They say they need a better loyalty program, more detailed help with human resources or marketing, but if they invest in that, because of their age, they’ll never get the money back,” Monroe said. The same would be true to acquire stores or build new. “You spend $10 million, you won’t live long enough to see payback.”
For every chain struggling with succession issues, Ken Shriber, managing director and CEO, Petroleum Equity Group, Chappaqua, New York, sees competitors that are “active, hungry” and always looking to add assets.
“It’s a good time for even successful chains to go out on a high note, when things are good." -Ken Shriber, Petroleum Equity Group
“It’s a good time for even successful chains to go out on a high note, when things are good,” he said.
Forward thinking
For retailers looking to the future, c-store consumers are becoming more demanding. Spinks of Spinx said, “They have higher expectations, like clean bathrooms, foodservice and high-quality dispensed beverages. They want protein bars and a selection of higher-quality goods than typical [packaged snacks].”
Regarding technology, Spinks said they have digital signage in their stores and digital mini boards that tie into social media networks and loyalty app rewards.
“Loyalty programs are an opportunity to engage on a different level,” he said. “It’s a different level of connectivity.”
Even operationally, technologies tied to artificial intelligence (AI) will help businesses evolve, said Olympidis of Family Express. He said traditional search engines are already giving way to AI connecting with customers. In terms of digitally catching the consumer’s eye, he said, “You can be invisible in terms of search access if your objective is to synchronize your marketing with the digital consumer. It’s a challenge. You need to constantly be flexible and willing to play in an environment that may not be your core comfort level.”
Retailers playing multi-level chess may have to identify ways to thrive in a time where the big get bigger and those who can’t have to sell.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.