Sales of C-stores Up 70 Percent Year Over Year

SAN FRANCISCO -- New data from online business-for-sale marketplace BizBuySell.com indicates that convenience stores are hot properties.

According to San Francisco-based BizBuySell.com, the median sale price for c-stores in the third quarter of 2013 was $177,500. The median asking price was $192,500. In addition, BizBuySell.com found that the median revenue in the third quarter of 2013 was $639,500 and the median cash flow was $114,000.

These numbers represent an improvement over the same quarter in 2012 when the median sale price was $125,000 and the median asking price was $150,000. Additionally, the median revenue in the third quarter of 2012 was $404,400, while the median cash flow was $85,000, according to BizBuySell.com.

Sales of convenience stores are in line with the company's findings that small-business transactions overall jumped 41.7 percent in the third quarter of 2013 compared to the same period in 2012. The restaurant and retail categories led the way in this latest quarter, as restaurant transactions increased 109.4 percent over the third quarter of 2012 and retail transactions increased 60.9 percent over the same quarter.

"When the recession hit in 2008, many buyers and sellers were forced to exit the marketplace simply because conditions for small-business transactions were very challenging," said Curtis Kroeker, group general manager of BizBuySell.com and BizQuest.com. "However, as the economy improves, small-business performance continues to gain steam and financing availability improves, more buyers and sellers are emerging to pursue what they had hoped to do some time ago."

BizBuySell.com also found that restaurants and retail transactions combined accounted for 54 percent of all transactions in the latest quarter vs. 43 percent a year ago.

"We've been watching small-business performance improve since Q3 2010 and waiting for transaction growth to resume. In 2013, it appears that the conditions are finally coming together to unlock latent potential. Additionally, Q3 2013 marks the fifth straight quarter that both asking and sale prices are up nicely year over year, showing that strengthening performance is translating into more money in sellers' pockets," Kroeker said.

In an August survey conducted by BizBuySell.com among prospective buyers, nearly 25 percent of respondents said they are considering a restaurant as their next business purchase. Convenience stores tied with Internet businesses as the next most popular target, at 18 percent each, CSNews Online previously reported.

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