Casey's Picks Up 22 Lone Star Food Stores
ANKENY, Iowa — Casey's General Stores Inc. is entering Texas with the acquisition of 22 Lone Star Food Store locations from W. Douglass Distributing Ltd.
Twenty of the stores are owned by Douglass in fee, and all are located within a 60-mile radius of Douglass' headquarters in Sherman.
The transaction is expected to close within the coming weeks and be completed by the end of November, according to NRC Realty & Capital Advisors LLC, which served as exclusive financial advisor to Douglass and its affiliates.
"The Lone Star convenience stores are high quality stores located on great corners in fantastic markets. They will also serve as a springboard into the great state of Texas for Casey's, while still located within our self-distribution network," said Casey's President and CEO Darren Rebelez. "We look forward to bringing our convenience store and food offerings to north Texas soon and welcome the Lone Star team members to the Casey's family."
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The sale comes a week after family-run Douglass announced the sale of its wholesale business to Offen Petroleum after more than four decades of business.
In 1947, Humble Oil (later known as Exxon) established a railroad bulk plant in Sherman and Gainesville, Texas. Bill Douglass purchased the Exxon consignee in Sherman, including the local Exxon Transport Division, Exxon Tank Wagon Division, Exxon Lubricants Division and Tires, Batteries & Accessories Division, in 1981 to establish Douglass Distributing with just three employees.
In recent years, Lone Star Food Stores won "Best of Texoma" awards, which honor local businesses in the Sherman and Denison, Texas, region near the Oklahoma state border, in the "Best Gas Station" and "Best Convenience Store Restrooms" categories 14 times. The banner also won in the "Best Locally-Owned Business" category in 2021.
Casey's will retain all Lone Star employees at the stores following the sale.
"We have taken great pride in the convenience store chain that we have built over the past 40 years, and we owe much of our success to our dedicated store employees," said Bill Douglass, CEO of W. Douglass Distributing. "I have known Darren Rebelez of Casey's for many years, and I have been extremely impressed by the job he has done during his tenure there. Casey's has a culture very similar to that of our company, and I am confident that our stores will be in good hands in the Casey's network."
A respected industry veteran, Douglass was inducted into the Convenience Store News Hall of Fame as the 2008 retailer inductee and served as NACS Chairman in 2004-2005.
"This has been an incredible journey for the Douglass family. We at NRC have appreciated the opportunity to represent Bill and his family in the second phase of the company sale consisting of the sale of the Lone Star Food Stores to Casey's," said Denny Ruben, executive managing director at NRC. "We have worked with Casey's on several previous occasions and it is always a pleasure to work with them and their management team. We wish Bill, Diane and Brad all the best in the future."
Headquartered in Ankeny, Casey’s operates more than 2,500 convenience stores. The company is the third-largest convenience store retailer and the fifth-largest pizza chain in the United States.
Casey's is No. 3 on the 2023 Convenience Store News Top 100 ranking.