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Dive Brief:

• EG America has laid off some employees as a means to better position the convenience retailer for the long term, a company spokesperson confirmed.
• The layoffs took place on Jan. 5 and affected about 90 team members in the company’s store support arm, a source familiar with the situation said. These layoffs will not lead to a reduction among in-store staff members, the source noted.
• EG America’s spokesperson said the changes will also help position the company towards “a renewed focus on enhancing customer service” moving forward.

Dive Insight:

While EG America’s spokesperson did not cite any financial reasons for the layoffs, parent company EG Group’s outstanding debt — currently $5.7 billion — could be related. Several employees took to LinkedIn late last week announcing they’d been terminated, with one citing “a difficult financial year for the company” as reasoning for the layoffs.

EG America is working with the terminated employees to offer transitional support, including giving them priority consideration for open positions elsewhere within the company, a source familiar with the situation said.

“We recognize this is a difficult time for the affected colleagues at EG America and we are doing our utmost to support them,” EG America’s spokesperson said in a statement.

The layoffs continue what has been a busy past year for EG America in an effort to relieve its debt. The company agreed to a $1.5 billion dollar sale-leaseback agreement for over 400 U.S. c-stores with Realty Income Corporation and divested 89 of its Minit Mart stores to Casey’s General Stores for well over $50 million. Overseas, parent company EG Group sold of all but 32 of its c-store and fueling locations in the U.K. and Ireland to sister supermarket company Asda for $2.5 billion,

Blackburn, U.K.-based EG Group currently has more than 5,500 c-stores across the U.S., U.K. and Ireland, Europe and Australia. EG America is EG Group’s largest operation globally, with 1,645 sites across 10 banners in 30 states, including Cumberland Farms, Fastrac, Kwik Shop and Tom Thumb.