Dive Brief:
- Midwest grocer Coborn’s has sold all 14 of its Holiday Stationstores franchise locations back to the c-store’s parent company, Coborn’s Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications Dennis Host confirmed through email.
- The grocer, which runs more than 100 retail stores, will continue to operate its Little Dukes convenience stores, which operate adjacent to Coborn’s and Cash Wise Foods Stores locations.
- The sale of these Holiday Stationstores locations finalized on the same day that Casey’s announced it had bought 22 stores in Texas, continuing what has been a busy year for M&A in the convenience store industry.
Dive Insight:
Although Coborn’s no longer owns the Holiday Stationstores in central Minnesota, it will continue to let shoppers redeem fuel rewards through those locations, Host said.
More Fuel Rewards — Coborn’s fuel loyalty program — allows customers to earn 1 cent in rewards for every $10 spent on qualifying purchases at Coborn’s, Cash Wise or Marketplace Foods Stores, and apply those rewards as fuel discounts.
Coborn’s acquired the Holiday Stationstores properties in 2006, according to St. Cloud Live. Holiday Stationstores was acquired by Alimentation Couche-Tard in 2017 and has more than 500 locations in 10 states.
With this divestiture, Coborn’s joins grocery chains like Kroger and Schnuck Markets in selling off convenience store locations. Grocers that still have a sizable c-store business, like Hy-Vee and Giant Eagle, use those smaller locations to help drive customer loyalty, test out new initiatives and more.
The convenience retail space has seen a flurry of M&A deals throughout 2023, both large and small. BP purchased TravelCenters of America’s 280 travel centers in May for $1.3 billion, and Maverik doubled its size by acquiring Kum & Go. More recently, Casey’s bought 22 Lone Star Food Stores locations and Petroleum Marketing Group acquired 10 locations from Springer Eubank Company.
