Dive Brief:

• On the heels of three acquisitions made so far this year, Global Partners will “continue to evaluate potential [acquisition] opportunities” that align with its strategic growth objectives, CEO Eric Slifka said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call Friday.
• Global Partners’ most recent acquisition included the purchase of all 15 c-stores from Southeast Virginia-based chain Tidewater Convenience, which is part of what grew its footprint in Virginia from 13 to 89 stores in the last year, Slifka said.
• Global Partners has had most of its M&A success with “smaller” deals, which it will continue to pursue moving forward, Slifka said.

Dive Insight:

Global Partners sees this moment as a “good opportunity” to continue growing its business from an acquisition perspective because of the highly active M&A pipeline, both Slifka and CFO Gregory Hanson said during the call.

However, the company will remain selective in its choices in order to ensure its moves make sense financially.

“We're going to do what we think is going to get us the best returns and make us the most money,” Slifka said. “We'll be as opportunistic as we can to figure out what's best to do, but we're trying to make sure that we see every opportunity that's out there and decide what we can transact on.”

While neither Slifka nor Hanson provided many details on the types of acquisitions Global Partners plans on making moving forward, they did note the company will stick to “smaller” deals compared to “multi-billion dollar” moves, since they’re “a better fit for the company,” Slifka said.

"It's only the very largest deals we look at and say, 'There's no way we can get that done,' because they’re just too big,” Slifka said.

Prior to its acquisition of Tidewater Convenience in September, Global Partners purchased 23 c-stores in Virginia from Miller’s Neighborhood Market in February. A month before that, the company acquired 26 “Wheels”-branded c-stores in Connecticut from Consumers Petroleum of Connecticut. 

Waltham, Massachusetts-based Global Partners operates more than 1,700 c-stores under a variety of banners, such as Alltown Fresh, Alltown Markets, XtraMart, Honey Markets, and Jiffy Mart. The company also owns, controls or has access to one of the largest terminal networks in New England and New York, through which it distributes gasoline, distillates, residual oil and renewable fuels to wholesalers, retailers and commercial customers