Poppy Markets Acquires 11 C-stores in California
NEWARK, Calif. — Engineer's Associates Inc. and its affiliates, dba National Petroleum, sold its convenience and petroleum marketing business to Poppy Markets LLC.
Headquartered in Newark, National Petroleum operates a chain of 11 convenience stores and retail fuel outlets, as well as a wholesale fuels distribution business that supplies more than 100 dealers.
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Arbuckle, Calif.-based Poppy Markets opened its first c-store in Santa Clara, Calif., in June 2013 and now operates a network of 50-plus throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento and Southern California.
National Petroleum was founded when partners Sanjiv Patel and Nick Patel acquired a 76-branded gas station with a three-bay repair shop in Berkeley, Calif., in 2004. Over the next several years, the company continued to build its portfolio of company-operated gas stations with convenience stores in the San Francisco Bay area.
In 2013, National expanded into wholesale fuels distribution and launched a proprietary National fuel brand at both company-operated and dealer sites. The company also markets fuels under the Valero, Chevron, Shell, Exxon and Mobil brands.
At the time of the sale, National had grown to nearly 100 million gallons of fuel sales across its company-operated and wholesale network, the vast majority of which was unbranded.
Matrix Capital Markets Group Inc. provided merger-and-acquisition advisory services to National, which included valuation advisory, marketing the businesses through a confidential, structured sale process, and negotiation of the transaction. The transaction was managed by Vance Saunders, managing director; James Mickelinc, senior associate; and Michael Corliss, analyst.
"I truly couldn't have found a better advisor to guide us through this process. As this was our first time navigating a transaction of this scale, their support and genuine handholding every step of the way made a world of difference," said National CEO Sanjiv Patel. "Their attention to detail, particularly in the early stages of data gathering, felt intense at times but as we moved forward, it became clear why they were so thorough. Both Vance and James are absolute experts at what they do."
Fred Whitaker and Ashley Bolduc of Cummins & White LLP served as legal counsel for National.