Hundreds of the nation’s travel centers changed ownership over the past year, with established players taking the reins in three of the larger transactions. One involved a global investment firm, another a major oil company and the third, an established travel center chain.
In the first deal, the investment firm Berkshire Hathaway, Omaha, Nebraska, purchased the remaining shares for Pilot Travel Centers, LLC, Knoxville, Tennessee. The final cost was $13.6 billion and concluded with the $2.6 billion payment for the last 20% of ownership.
The Haslam family, which includes Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, in 2017 sold 38.6% of Pilot to Berkshire Hathaway for $2.8 billion and, in January 2023, 41.4% for more for $8.2 billion.
The last part of the deal closed this past January, after the two sides resolved a lawsuit concerning how Berkshire accounted for the value of Pilot stores.
Pilot Co. is No. 15 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. Pilot Co. is also the largest operator of travel centers in North America, with more than 750 locations across 44 states and six Canadian provinces, selling about 14 billion gallons of fuel a year and about $3 billion in food and merchandise.
A second major acquisition occurred with BP Products North America Inc., Chicago, buying TravelCenters of America Inc., Westlake, Ohio, for $1.3 billion. It added a network of about 280 travel centers.
The deal added EBITDA immediately, expected to grow to around $800 million by 2025, the company said. bp is ranked No. 7 in this year’s Top 202 with 1,540 locations.
Then in a third major travel center purchase, Oklahoma City-based Love’s Travel Stops completed the acquisition of EZ GO from Carey Johnson Oil Co., Lawton, Oklahoma. The acquisition includes six truck stops located on Oklahoma turnpikes, five on the Kansas turnpike and 11 convenience stores in Oklahoma and Nebraska, for a total of 22 stores. This is the first time Love’s footprint will include locations on a turnpike and puts Love’s at No. 16 on this year’s Top 202 with 640 sites.
The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal.
Love’s recently launched its “Strategic Remodel Initiative,” in which it will invest more than $1 billion in updating 200 locations over the next five years. The retailer will invest between $2 million and $7 million per location on average by 2028, the company said.
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