Published: August 22, 2007 09:45 pm      

Deweese family wants to sell fuel, convenience stores

MERIDIAN(AP)— Deweese Enterprises Inc. has hired a Chicago firm to sell its SuperStop chain of 45 stores in Mississippi and Alabama.

The sale also includes the company’s gasoline distribution company and an ice company. The company has more than 400 employees and had sales of $173 million in 2006.

The family owned business began in 1966 with one store in Meridian.

Company president Doug Deweese said Tuesday that fluctuation in fuel prices and higher fees from credit cards were among reasons for the decision to sell.

‘‘In April and May we had as much as a 12-cent-per-gallon increase in one day,’’ Deweese said.

He said 9-11 changed the oil industry and company profits have slipped as the oil producers consolidated.

‘‘Before 9-11 we made 17 cents a gallon, but after 9-11 we make about 15.4 cents a gallon before expenses,’’ he said.

A growing expense has been the large amount paid to credit card companies for processing transactions, Deweese said. Credit card companies charge a percentage of the sale, so as the prices rise so does the cost to the merchant. What was a 3-cent expense when gas was $1 a gallon is 9 cents when gas is at $3 a gallon, according to trade organizations.

The SuperStop chain was founded in 1966 by Glen Deweese, Doug Deweese’s father, after working in the convenience industry for several years. Glen Deweese, who served in the Mississippi Senate, died in September 2001.

‘‘He was one of the forefathers of the convenience-store industry in Mississippi,’’ said Jerry Wilkerson, executive director of Mississippi Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Stores Association. The elder Deweese served as president of NACS in 1990.

Doug Deweese assumed leadership of the company after his father’s death.

Deweese said the company is in the midst of rebranding the shops after switching fuel suppliers earlier this year. The company anticipates completing changes at every location by Sept. 15.

‘‘People think we were already sold,’’ Deweese said of the recent switch of gasoline distributors from ConocoPhillips to Texaco and Chevron.

Deweese decided to sell in July and told all the employees.

‘‘We have been really good (to our workers), and they are scared the new company won’t be as good,’’ he said.

Deweese said he assured the workers, some of whom have been with the company for more than three decades, they are one of the assets any new company would want.

‘‘Whoever buys this (company) has to be bigger and better,’’ he said.

Deweese said the potential sale was to ensure his mother, who is not active in the business, is financially secure.

‘‘That is what I am doing this for,’’ he said in a www.clarionledger.com article.

NRC Realty of Chicago is handling the sale, which Deweese said is for the entire company. Deweese said he hopes to complete the sale in four months.

Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores, said midsize companies such as SuperStop either sell out or get larger.

In 2005, Waring Oil, based in Vicksburg, sold its 39 stores to The Pantry Inc. This followed The Pantry’s acquisition of more than 40 Mississippi stores in 2000.

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On the Net

SuperStop, http://www.superstop.net





AP-CS-08-22-07 1023EDT