7-Eleven to Buy 51 ExxonMobil Stores in North Texas

August 18, 2011
By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Taking another step forward in its national expansion program, 7-Eleven Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire ExxonMobil’s retail interests at 51 locations, including two unused land parcels, in North Texas.

“This acquisition fits well with our aggressive growth strategy,” Sean Duffy, 7-Eleven vice president of mergers and acquisitions, said. “In terms of store growth, 2011 promises to be 7-Eleven’s biggest year since 1986.”

The bulk of the portfolio sits in metropolitan Dallas/Fort Worth, where the convenience store company has 239 locations, seven of which just opened their doors this year. 7-Eleven has not disclosed the portfolio’s square footage; however, as noted on its website, the company prefers that converted stores have a minimum of 1,800 square feet of selling space, but will consider a 1,400 square-foot selling floor.

7-Eleven expects the ExxonMobil transaction to close late this year, after which point the company will commence the remodeling and rebranding of the retail sites. The gasoline segment of the properties will continue to operate under the Exxon brand.

The deal is not the first between the two companies. Earlier this year, 7-Eleven completed the acquisition of the interests in 183 ExxonMobil retail sites and unused land parcels in Florida, one of the convenience store chain’s target markets. New York is also high on the radar. In April, the company signed on to purchase the Wilson Farms chain of 188 sites in western New York.

While the national retail sector has yet to fully recover, the convenience store sub-sector is faring relatively well. In 2010, convenience stores experienced a 4.4 percent growth rate in in-store sales, placing the sub-sector significantly ahead of the warehouse stores/club stores, restaurants, drug stores and grocery stores, according to figures released by the National Association of Convenience Stores. The growth rate in those sub-sectors was 4 percent, 3.4 percent, 2.4 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively. Last year, combined in-store and motor fuel sales at convenience stores topped total sales for every year since 1998.

7-Eleven is not the only chain that has been in growth mode. As noted in the NACS report, in 2010, the number of convenience stores in the U.S. increased 1.2 percent.