Dive Brief:
- Casey’s General Stores is the company that bought 26 Minit Mart c-stores from EG America for $48 million in March, a company spokesperson confirmed.
- News of the Minit Mart sale came three days after EG Group entered into a $1.5 billion sale-leaseback agreement with Realty Income Corporation under which the real estate investment trust will purchase up to 415 c-store properties in the U.S. At the time, EG did not specify a buyer of the Minit Mart stores.
- All of the Minit Mart stores are located in the Kansas City, Missouri, area, the Casey’s spokesperson said. Casey’s is still developing plans for these stores and has been focused on the details of the acquisition, transition for team members and immediate operations since the acquisition was made, they noted.
Dive Insight:
Casey’s now operates 12 locations in the Kansas City metro area and several more in the surrounding suburbs, the spokesperson said. The acquisition underscores the company’s efforts to grow in both rural and mid-size markets, as it has executed similar strategies in Omaha, Nebraska; Oklahoma City; and Knoxville, Tennessee, they noted.
“We expect with these 26 locations we’ll be able to serve even more Casey’s fans in Kansas City,” the spokesperson said.
At the time of the Minit Mart sale earlier this year, EG Group said selling these “non-core” locations was part of its “long term strategy” in the U.S., alongside its 415-location real-estate disposal.
Lexington, Kentucky-based Minit Mart was founded in 1967 and expanded to nine U.S. states before being bought by TravelCenters of America in 2015. Three years later, EG Group acquired Minit Mart’s 225-site network for $305 million.
According to EG America’s website, Minit Mart now operates in six states: Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee.
Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey’s operates more than 2,500 c-stores in 16 states and is the third-largest c-store chain in the U.S. by store count.
