Jiffy Mart stores, gas stations to be sold to Bay State behemoth

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2018 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Global Partners LP has announced that it is buying the retail fuel and convenience business of Champlain Oil of South Burlington. With the sale, which is set to be completed in the third quarter of 2018, Global Partners will be taking over the Chester Jiffy Mart along with 36 other Champlain owned gas stations with Jiffy Mart stores.

In addition to company owned stores, the deal also includes approximately 24 fuel stations that are either owned or leased plus fuel supply agreements for about 70 gas stations. The stations are primarily in Vermont and New Hampshire and sell major fuel brands such as Mobil, Shell, Citgo, Sunoco and Irving.

“Jiffy Mart is an established brand with locations along high-traffic routes throughout northern New England,” said Global Partners CEO Eric Slifka in a press release. “We are very excited about adding retail facilities to our portfolio and expect the transaction to be accretive within the first full year of operations.”

“Accretive,” in the lingo of mergers and acquisitions, means that it will add to the buyer’s earnings per share. Slifka also said that the purchase will benefit his company by adding volume to its fuel terminals in Burlington and Albany, N.Y.

Champlain Oil President Tony Cairns told The Telegraph that it was still too early to get into details on the transaction, but that Jiffy Mart employees and the brands in the stores — such as Ramunto’s and Subway — would remain in place. Representatives of Global Partners met with Champlain Oil executives and Jiffy Mart store managers this week.

Global Partners owns, leases or supplies over 1,500 gas stations including 260 company operated convenience stores under brand names like XtraMart, Alltown and Honey Farms. Through a company representative, Slifka told The Telegraph that the company plans to keep the well known Jiffy Mart brand.

The Waltham, Mass.,based Global Partners is a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GLP. It began as a single delivery truck oil company run by the Slifka family in the 1930s as homeowners converted from coal to oil heat.

In the intervening years, the company grew to become number 146 on the Fortune 500 in 2014 with revenues of more than $17 billion, but has fallen back to 334 with revenues of just under $9 billion last year. The drop in revenue is due in part to the declining price of oil, which reduced the demand for the Dakota shale fields oil that Global Partners has played a role in shipping to the East Coast.