Pride Stores Owner Chooses Buyer for His Company

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — The Pride Gas Station and Convenience Store chain has found a buyer.

Arclight Capital Partners is purchasing Pride from owner Bob Bolduc. No changes will be made to the Pride name, all employees will remain in place and Arclight will manage the stores "from a distance," reported Western Mass News.

Bolduc will remain with the company, serving as one of the board of directors for the Pride gas stations.

"I think that's quite a compliment to our staff, to my team here, that this company has entrusted them to take over," Bolduc told the news outlet. "The public, I hope, will not see a difference in terms of service and in terms of all the benefits Pride has."

As Convenience Store News previously reported, Bolduc put a for-sale sign on the chain of c-stores in June.

The sale includes 31 convenience stores, two truck stops, 15 Subway franchises, 15 Chester's Chickens, and seven liquor stores. It also includes vacant property the private equity firm hopes to develop in the future, reported the news source.

"We had seven actual very serious big bidders who wanted to buy it," Bolduc told Western Mass News. "They were all either national chains or very large regional chains that were strongly interested, and it wasn't that difficult to pick, because this company wanted to keep everybody in place and not everybody wanted to do that, and most of all, I want to take care of my employees."

Bolduc founded the modern version of Springfield-based Pride in 1972 after his service in Vietnam. He opened what he calls Springfield's first convenience store in 1982.