Dive Brief:
- Midwest convenience retailer Mega Consumers Cooperative has ended its franchise agreement with the Holiday Stationstores banner, a spokesperson for Circle K, Holiday’s sister brand, confirmed via email.
- This comes more than nine months after Mega Co-op filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2023.
- The move is the latest Mega Co-op has undertaken to streamline operations and improve financials. Last September, it closed 13 underperforming stores that had consistently negative cash flows.
Dive Insight:
As Mega Co-op looks to exit bankruptcy and share a post-bankruptcy plan on June 7, the company is ceasing to operate five of its remaining locations and rebranding the other 13, according to local reporting. One of the locations announced its May 19 closure on Facebook.
Mega Co-op could not be reached for comment by press time.
Alimentation Couche-Tard does not plan to take over the locations that Mega Co-op is stepping away from.
“We are disappointed that our franchisee is closing its Eau Claire area Holiday stores,” the Circle K spokesperson said. “While we currently have no plans to take control of those locations, we will evaluate options for serving Eau Claire in the future.”
As Mega Co-op approaches the end of its bankruptcy, it will emerge as a leaner company. The fact that it’s emerging at all puts it in a better place than other recent convenience store bankruptcies.
Mountain Express Oil filed for Chapter 7 in March 2023, in what became a drawn out and messy ordeal. In the past month, Outfox Hospitality, parent company of Foxtrot Markets, also filed for bankruptcy. Meanwhile a major buyer of former Mountain Express sites, SQRL Holdings, is being pressured to do the same by three of its creditors — including the company it sold its entire c-store portfolio to in April.
Eau Claire-based Mega Consumers Cooperative was founded in 1935. It has more than 20,000 co-op members to date, according to its website.
