Pops Mart Stores Sold as Part of Winnsboro Petroleum's Exit From Industry

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Winnsboro Petroleum Co. is saying goodbye to the convenience store industry.

As part of its departure, the multi-generation petroleum marketer sold its chain of 24 Pops Mart c-stores located in the greater Columbia market to industry veterans Don Draughon and JD Dykstra. The sites are branded Shell and CITGO.

"Given the changing nature and sophistication of the convenience store industry over these past years, it became apparent that selling the business was the best option of our family and our employees," commented Winnsboro owner and CEO Bill McMaster. "Selecting Don and JD as our buyer made optimal sense since they were committed to preserving our entire staff to support their new store acquisition platform."

Draughon and Dykstra formed a new entity, Pops Mart Fuel LLC, to complete the acquisition.

All Winnsboro employees who wanted to stay with the business were retained at closing, including Support Center personnel. Pops Mart Fuel plans to continue growing through acquisitions and is actively seeking opportunities.  

PetroActive Real Estate Services LLC provided exclusive advisory services to Winnsboro for the transaction. 

"This was a total team effort on our part to help navigate this transaction to a successful conclusion. We sincerely appreciate the opportunity afforded by Bill McMaster to allow our firm to represent his company and we wish him the very best of good health and good fortune in the years ahead," said Mark Radosevich, president of PetroActive Services.