3 Big Numbers is a weekly column that looks at a few key details from around the c-store industry.
Even though a takeover of Seven & i remains just a twinkle in Alimentation Couche-Tard’s eye for now, the two companies’ public back-and-forth has been top of mind in the convenience store industry over the past week.
While the huge number of stores at stake will make for interesting discussion if the parents of 7-Eleven and Circle K ever agree on a deal, today’s list covers an entirely different — but still quite consequential — acquisition from Couche-Tard.
$1.6 billion
The amount of money Couche-Tard will spend to acquire GetGo
Although dwarfed by the nearly $39 billion Couche-Tard submitted for Seven & i, the $1.6 billion price tag it’s paying to acquire GetGo Cafe + Market, the 270-site convenience store arm of grocer Giant Eagle, is eye popping all on its own.
Late last week, the Canadian company gave more details about the acquisition, emphasizing the importance of GetGo’s foodservice and loyalty programs. Couche-Tard’s new CEO Alex Miller said that GetGo offers an “innovative, food-first convenience store experience” that could benefit Couche-Tard.
223
The number of stores at issue between SQRL and Blue Owl
In the latest update to one of the more bizarre storylines the c-store industry has seen in recent memory, Blue Owl Capital, the company which owns the properties to hundreds of former SQRL-branded convenience stores, is accusing Gas Hub — the unknown company that acquired SQRL’s leases in April — of squatting in stores, withholding rent payments and changing the locks on buildings to prevent new owners from taking over the properties.
Amid all this confusion, the recent court filings from Blue Owl has at least confirmed the number of its c-stores that are stuck in limbo. Blue Owl says it’s owed rent on 223 stores that it used to lease to SQRL. What remains unclear is how many other stores may have been included in the initial acquisition by Gas Hub.
40 million
The pounds of cheese Casey’s used in the last fiscal year
Casey’s General Stores held its earnings call at basically the same time as Couche-Tard last week — and it also talked a lot about food.
While there was plenty of information about broader sales trends and store count growth, details about one particular aspect of its operations repeatedly cropped up.
Cheese.
That’s not exactly surprising, considering Casey’s is the fifth-largest pizza chain in the U.S. “Cheese is the single largest commodity that we consume in our prepared food business,” said Steve Bramlage, Casey’s CFO, in the call.
Forty million pounds is 20,000 tons. That’s almost 90 Statue of Libertys worth of cheese.
Bramlage also said all that cheese cost Casey’s more than $100 million in total last fiscal year.
