Dive Brief:
- Three Bears, an Alaskan grocery and convenience chain, has acquired six retail locations across the state, including five convenience stores and gas stations and one supply store, according to a report from TV station KTOO.
- One of the five convenience locations, in Delta Junction, will eventually be expanded into a small grocery store. The town’s only other grocer has been closed since 2021 after its roof collapsed in a winter storm, according to the report.
- This continues a busy growth phase for Three Bears, which has built or acquired several stores across Alaska since entering into a recapitalization deal with a Seattle-based private equity firm in March 2022.
Dive Insight:
In addition to the Delta Junction store, which was bought from a private owner, Three Bears acquired four locations in Fairbanks from Sourdough Fuel. These locations will all be rebranded to Three Bears.
Though no timetable for the facelift was given, it is expected to go quickly since it will only involve changing the signage and inventory, Jim Kolb, a Three Bears spokesperson, said in the KTOO report.
Three Bears was founded in 1980 as a grocery chain, and earlier this year, the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. took a minority stake in the company as part of a $200 million in-state investment program. Since then, the company has opened at least one new store in addition to making these six acquisitions.
Before these moves, Wasilla, Alaska-based Three Bears had eight c-stores and 13 grocery stores, along with a handful of other retail stores including hardware, sporting goods and pharmacy locations. While most of the grocery stores are in Alaska, it does have one location in Butte, Montana.
Fairbanks-based Sourdough sold four of its seven c-store locations. The company also has a bulk plant, delivers heating oil and offers burner and furnace repair.
Three Bears’ latest move continues a busy 2023 for acquisitions across convenience retail, from buyouts of entire large chains — like BP acquiring TravelCenters of America and Maverik merging with Kum & Go — to smaller sets of stores, such as Tri-Star buying 54 locations from Cox Oil or Alta Convenience buying eight stores from Duran Oil.
