Personnel Updates
• 7-Eleven Inc. (51) announced that Jesus Delgado-Jenkins, Chief Merchandising Officer and Exec VP, is retiring.
• Yesway (29) has hired Derek Gaskins as Senior VP of Merchandising and Procurement, and Jeff Keune as Senior VP of Foodservice and Innovation.
Mergers and Acquisitions
• Couche-Tard Inc. announced an agreement with Irving Oil Ltd. to rebrand 36 of its CST sites to Circle K and the Irving fuel brand. The agreement includes selling 13 of these former CST retail sites to Irving Oil. Couche-Tard will continue to operate the sites.
• Empire Petroleum Partners has acquired the wholesale distribution business of Willoughby Oil Company.
• Herdrich Petroleum Corp. Inc. has purchased four Kelly’s convenience stores with gasoline from Kelly Oil Co. Inc.
• Imperial Trading has purchased S. Abraham & Sons Inc., where things will remain business as usual.
• Publix Super Markets Inc. has purchased the three remaining Safeway stores in Florida from Albertsons LLC. Located in Altamonte Springs, Largo and Oakland Park, the three locations will continue operating under the Safeway banner until early September.
• Publix Super Markets Inc. announced that it has acquired a Winn-Dixie located in Gulf Shores, AL from Winn-Dixie Stores Inc.
• Yesway has acquired 13 Chisum Travel Center and Fast Stop convenience stores in Texas.
• Yesway announced the acquisition of 26 Fresh Start Convenience stores in South Dakota, Wyoming and Nebraska.
Industry Insight
• The Kroger Co. announced it will launch a new private-label apparel brand in the fall. Called Dip, the clothing line will include apparel for the whole family.
• Supervalu Inc. proposed a reorganization of its corporate structure where it will separate its retail operations and grocery wholesale divisions.
• Tom Thumb opened its first convenience store, Tom Thumb Express, last month in Dallas, TX.
Real Estate
• The Fresh Market Inc. announced that it will close 15 stores in the next month in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
• The Kroger Co. announced that it will exit the Raleigh-Durham market in August, by closing and selling its 14 locations there.
• Wakefern Food Corp. has opened its first ShopRite store in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The 38,000 sq. ft. store is owned and operated by Village Super Market Inc., a member of the Wakefern cooperative.
Technology News
• Giant Eagle Inc. has launched Scan Pay & Go, a new service that enables customers to use their smartphones or a store-provided device to scan groceries as they shop.
• Hy-Vee Inc. announced it will partner with Instacart and Shipt to expand its delivery footprint and provide shopping options for customers in more than two dozen markets.
Just because we don’t mention it here doesn’t mean it didn’t happen – or we didn’t capture it. In the past four weeks, we’ve updated more than 193 companies in the Supermarket, Grocery, & Convenience Stores PLUS Database, with many of those companies’ records updated at multiple points.
