Prospecting: Key Moves from National Retail Brands This Week…
Casey’s General Stores has completed the largest deal in its 50-year-plus history. The Iowa-based convenience store chain said that it closed on its previously announced acquisition of Fikes Wholesale, owner of CEFCO Convenience Stores. The $1.145 billion acquisition will bring 148 additional stores to Texas, considered a highly strategic market for Casey’s, as well as 50 stores in the southern states of Alabama, Florida and Mississippi. With the acquisition, Casey’s has a total store count of approximately 2,900 stores.
Circle K is growing its footprint in New York State under a new franchise pact. The convenience store retailer inked a franchise development agreement with The Briad Group, a U.S. hospitality company with a history of franchise development across the dining and lodging sectors. The Briad Group will open 40 franchised Circle K stores in Upstate New York as part of the agreement. Circle K currently operates and franchises approximately 30 locations in New York.
Adding another perk for members, Lowe’s has launched its Digital Home Platform, a free loyalty-member exclusive hub where customers can review their warranties and manuals, the retailer said. Customers can also access personalized information, including maintenance suggestions, how-to content, recommended subscriptions and replacement parts and other product information. To start, the platform will focus on home appliances, but it will later expand to include other parts of the home.
Yum Brands missed Wall Street’s expectations for its quarterly earnings and revenue. Both KFC and Pizza Hut reported same-store sales declines of 4%. Yum CEO David Gibbs said weak consumer sentiment and political conflicts weighed on the company’s results. Meanwhile, Restaurant Brands International reported quarterly earnings and revenue that fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. The company’s four chains reported weaker-than-expected same-store sales in their home markets. Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons was the top performer of the quarter.
Televisions that measure 97 inches (and more) diagonally across — a.k.a. XXL TVs — are becoming a huge hit as the cost of giant screens sinks sharply, and viewers look to replace the screens they bought during the peak of the pandemic a few years ago. Sales of gigantic screens are a bright spot for the TV manufacturing industry, amid stagnant sales for the overall category, according to research firm Circana. Best Buy is adding XXL TVs to 70% of its 940 stores in the U.S. in response to demand from its customers, the electronics retailer recently announced. However, ultra-large televisions aren’t cheap: Many of the options range in price between $1,699 to $2,999. Best Buy is offering free delivery plus installation with purchase.
Bernard Marcus, the co-founder of The Home Depot and a billionaire philanthropist, has died at the age of 95. The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Marcus was born in 1929 and grew up in Newark, N.J. After college, he worked his way up the corporate ladder at manufacturing conglomerate O’Dell’s and retail chain Vornado. In 1979, Marcus and Arthur Blank opened the first Home Depot store in Atlanta. Investment banker Ken Langone helped secure the financing to get the company started. Marcus was the CEO of Home Depot from 1978 to 1997. According to Forbes, Marcus had a net worth of about $11 billion at the time of his death.