Dive Brief:
- CrossAmerica Partners' recent $16.9 million deal for 59 Applegreen convenience stores underscores the company’s ongoing strategy to convert more locations to company-operated or commissioned sites, President and CEO Charles Nifong said Tuesday during CrossAmerica’s earnings call.
- The acquisition agreement — made with Applegreen Midwest and Applegreen Florida — included locations across Florida, Minnesota and Wisconsin, a spokesperson from CrossAmerica confirmed. Those stores had been company-operated until Applegreen took control of them around 2018, Nifong said during the call.
- While it’s made some large-scale deals in recent years, CrossAmerica has also quietly executed several smaller moves during the same time frame, establishing itself as an active player in the c-store M&A landscape.
Dive Insight:
Along with its 106-location acquisition from 7-Eleven in 2021 and $27.5 million purchase of Community Service Stations’ fuel supply contracts in 2022, CrossAmerica sold 10 properties for $9.2 million last year and offloaded 27 properties for $12.9 million in 2022.
Although Nifong said during the call that CrossAmerica intends to divest more “non-core” stores this year than it did in 2023, the company’s latest agreement with Applegreen — expected to close in the first half of 2024 — signals that it’s willing to both acquire and sell convenience stores moving forward.
“We look forward to company-operating these locations and expect the transaction to positively impact our retail segment and overall results,” Nifong said.
CrossAmerica’s company-operated c-stores grew from 253 stores at year-end 2022 to 295 as of December 2023, according to its earnings report.
Besides the Midwest and Florida, Dublin, Ireland-based Applegreen also operates numerous convenience stores across Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and South Carolina.
Allentown, Pennsylvania-based CrossAmerica Partners operates convenience stores in 10 states. The company also distributes fuel to about 1,700 locations in 34 states.
