TONAWANDA, N.Y. — Within days, green and orange NOCO signs seen across western New York will disappear, replaced by red and white Speedway signs now that the rebranding and conversion of 33 NOCO Express convenience stores convenience stores has begun, reported WIBV-TV.
In April, Marathon Petroleum Corp. and its Speedway LLC subsidiary entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire the 33 retail outlets, as well as a light product and asphalt terminal, from NOCO Inc.
* Speedway is No. 3 in CSP’s 2019 Top 202 ranking of c-store chains by number of company-owned retail outlets. NOCO is No. 162 in the Top 202 ranking.
A "staged closing" of the deal is underway, James Newman, president of NOCO Energy Corp., told the Buffalo News in a separate report. The fuel terminal changed hands July 15, and Marathon will convert stores at the rate of three to five locations a day through July 24, he said.
The convenience stores will maintain their Tim Hortons, Subway and Charlie the Butcher locations, Newman said. Marathon Petroleum already deals with many of NOCO’s suppliers in multiple categories, he said.
Six NOCO Express stores were not part of the deal and will not convert to Speedway. Those locations will keep the NOCO name for a while but will probably take on a new identity in September after deals are worked out for another company to lease them, the Buffalo News reported.
NOCO Energy was looking to expand the convenience business outside of western New York, Newman told WIBV, but Marathon was already buying up other c-store outlets across upstate New York. Newman said the company decided it was better to sell than face a much larger competitor.
Tonawanda, N.Y.-based NOCO Energy will continue to operate its wholesale fuel distribution network along with its heating oil, propane sales, gas supply, real-estate development and petroleum equipment sales businesses.
Findlay, Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum is an integrated downstream energy company that operates 16 refineries and a marketing system that includes approximately 7,800 branded U.S. locations, including about 5,600 Marathon retail outlets. Its Enon, Ohio-based Speedway subsidiary owns and operates approximately 4,000 convenience stores nationwide.
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