“There are a lot of great opportunities in the world of convenience store acquisitions, but there is no such thing as a perfect deal” Ah! The perfect deal! How we all fantasize about finding it. No doubt you have heard a story similar to the one about the guy who finds the barely used 1957 [.....]
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Anyone who is able to read or turn on a television has heard the news: we are in a recession. Everyday it seems that one company is trying to outdo the other in how many people they can layoff. Just last week, on one page of The Wall Street Journal I counted more than 30,000 [.....]
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“Make necessary capital improvements now and get paid later with a better return on investment” When the time comes to make capital improvements, more convenience store operators are making the smart decision to remodel now, rather than wait to take care of the maintenance when it’s too late. Recent trends indicate this shift is a [.....]
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“Practical advice to find and buy the right store at the right price” The convenience store industry is composed of nearly 150,000 stores. At any point in time, several thousand stores are available for prospective buyers. Opportunity is abundant and forthcoming, but there are still plenty of obstacles that could turn a sweet buy into [.....]
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“Retailers should research new profit centers, so they don’t end up shooting blanks” Silver bullet: a product or service that, when added to an existing business, will instantly become a profit center, add to the overall value of the business and put cash in the owner’s pocket. Myth or reality? While that is my own [.....]
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“Make a better profit on items you can control” A new year is upon us and many within the c-store industry will be expecting better financial results in 2008 compared to the reduced fuel margins, high credit-card fees, and record-breaking gas prices that negatively impacted the industry over the last two years. However, 2008 has [.....]
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“Your energy is better spent making good stores great” It’s staggering to consider that we work in an industry in which store sales rose by 12 percent, but profits still dropped by 23 percent last year, according to the Convenience Store News Industry Report. We all know the reasons for the decreasing profit margin, including [.....]
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The results are in, and according to the 2007 NACS State of the Industry report, convenience store sales rose to a record-high $569 billion last year, but profits plummeted by a record $4.8 billion. The staggering drop in profitability has hit multi-store owners the hardest, with many of them considering selling their stores. But thanks [.....]
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“It’s important to understand the difference between an appraisal and a valuation” For c-store owners who have been looking for the right time to sell, 2007 may be the best opportunity they have seen in years to get “their price.” That does not necessarily mean, however, that they can expect buyers to line up with [.....]
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“Prospects are out there, particularly single-store operators, despite a discouraging profit picture for some multi-unit retailers” Consumers are not the only ones feeling pain at the pump and in the wallet these days. Convenience store owners are feeling the pinch as well, fighting decreasing profit margins due to high fuel prices and credit-card fees. Soon [.....]
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