3 Big Numbers is a weekly column that looks at a few key details from around the c-store industry.
For better or worse, publicly traded companies are required to share many of their business decisions and financial data points on a regular basis. This gives shareholders an idea of how the company is being run and potential investors a glimpse of what they’d be getting into.
In today’s “3 Big Numbers,” we look at big announcements this week from three publicly traded companies in the convenience store industry: Arko, Berkshire Hathaway — parent of Pilot Flying J — and Seven & i, owner and operator of 7-Eleven.
$9.9 billion
Pilot’s year-over-year drop in revenue for 2024.
Lower gas prices and volatility may be good for drivers, but they can undoubtedly hurt fuel retailers. Case in point: Pilot, the travel center chain wholly owned by Berkshire Hathaway, saw its revenues decline by $9.9 billion, or 17%, year over year, according to Berkshire’s annual report.
These losses were “primarily attributable to lower average fuel prices and a decline in volumes from non-core fuel activities,” according to the report.
Declining fuel sales have been a recurring theme among publicly traded companies that sell gas. Murphy USA saw a 6% revenue decline thanks largely to low fuel prices, while CrossAmerica Partners also noted in its earnings report that its fuel margins “were not as strong as the prior year due to this lack of favorable price volatility.”
153
The number of c-stores Arko converted to dealer sites in 2024.
Arko, parent company of GPM Investments, announced in mid-2024 that it would convert a “meaningful number” of its company-owned stores to dealer sites as part of a multi-year transformation plan. The company hopes this plan will cut its expenses and ultimately make these sites more lucrative.
In its Q4 earnings call on Wednesday, Chairman, President and CEO Arie Kotler noted that, as of the end of 2024, Arko had already transferred 153 stores into new hands.
How much more of a shift can we expect? Arko is being a little coy on that point, with Kotler noting during the call that “we care less about the quantity, we care more about the quality” when it comes to selecting locations to keep or turn to dealer sites. However, he also said to expect 100 more conversions in the first quarter.
In all, the company expects to see “annualized benefit in excess of $20 million” from these changes, it said on Wednesday.
1
The number of bidders currently in public talks to buy Seven & i.
We here at C-Store Dive have speculated about 7-Eleven courting more of its smaller competitors through M&A, the way it did with Speedway and Stripes in recent years. We didn’t expect it to go the opposite way.
Last August, Alimentation Couche-Tard, parent of Circle K convenience stores, made a bid for Seven & i that was rejected and updated. Shortly after that, a group led by Japanese company Ito-Kogyo made its own proposal, leaving the world’s largest c-store company with two suitors vying for its affection.
But as of Thursday, Seven & i finds itself with only one offer to consider after the Ito-Kogyo team failed to pull together enough funding to support its bid.
That doesn’t mean Couche-Tard will definitely get its deal done with Seven & i though. Even if they reach agreement on price, regulatory concerns in the U.S. could present a major hurdle. Seven & i implied as much Thursday when it said it’s working with Couche-Tarde “to determine if an actionable proposal can be achieved that addresses the serious U.S. antitrust challenges that any such transaction would face.”
