HOUSTON -- Praising the success of the acquisitions of Mid-Atlantic Convenience Stores (MACS), which included the Tigermarket c-stores in Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee and Georgia in October 2014 and Aloha Petroleum in Hawaii in December 2014, Sunoco LP president and CEO Bob Owens talked about more growth.
"We plan to continue our expansion in 2015 through additional asset contributions from [Energy Transfer Partners (ETP)], through purchase and leasebacks of Stripes stores and through organic growth of new stores within our existing retail footprint," he said. "We will continue to look for opportunistic acquisitions like the Aloha assets."
During the company's fiscal fourth-quarter 2014 earnings call, he said, "We believe we’re well positioned in our capital structure to execute on our dropdown plans to continue the organic growth within our existing footprints and to continue to look for good strategic acquisitions that will drive long-term shareholder value."
He declined to be more specific.
MACS and Aloha are "outstanding" assets, Mary Sullivan, CFO for Sunoco, said during the call. They laid a "great foundation for our future expansion of the c-store business. When you look at population growth in the markets where they compete, Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee and Hawaii are all the 'top-cap' states in terms of population growth in the U.S."
Owens added, "We are continuing with our new-to-industry development. We have put on hold very few sites that were specifically close to some E&P activity that has slowed down. But this year, we will build and open in excess of 30 new ground-up sites that will be a combination of Texas sites as well as some other East Coast geography.
The Stripes chain, which is part of ETP's retail marketing segment, consists of more than 660 convenience stores, and it is Sunoco's largest wholesale fuel customer.
"We expect to realize further gallon growth in 2015 as Stripes plans to build an additional 35 to 40 stores," Sullivan said. "Stripes' Texas markets are among the fastest growing in the U.S. in terms of population, job creation and economic activity."
There are now about 50 Sunoco-branded locations in Texas, Owens said, and that growth will also continue.
As of December 31, Sunoco LP operated 153 retail convenience stores and gas stations in Virginia, Hawaii, Tennessee, Maryland and Georgia.
Affiliate customers included 656 Stripes and Sac-N-Pac convenience stores operated by a subsidiary of parent company Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), as well as sales of motor fuel to ETP subsidiaries for resale under consignment arrangements at approximately 85 independently operated convenience stores.
Third-party customers included 738 independent dealers under long-term fuel supply agreements, 55 independently operated consignment locations and more than 1,800 other commercial customers.
Houston-based Sunoco LP is a master limited partnership (MLP) that primarily distributes motor fuel to convenience stores, independent dealers, commercial customers and distributors. Its general partner is a wholly owned subsidiary of ETP. While primarily engaged in natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil and refined products transportation, ETP also operates a retail business with a network of more than 5,500 company- or independently operated gas stations and convenience stores through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Sunoco Inc. and Stripes LLC.
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