Susser Holdings Expands Stripes Leadership Team
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- Susser Holdings Corp., operator of the Stripes convenience store chain, has added to its executive team as it continues on a path to expand its c-store network.
Sid Keswani has joined Stripes LLC as senior vice president of store operations. He comes to the convenience store retailer with more than 18 years of retail operations experience with Target Corp., most recently as senior vice president for the Southeast region of the United States. In that role, he was responsible for driving the financial performance of approximately 475 locations.
In addition, Richard Sebastian, a 17-year veteran of Stripes, has taken on the role of senior vice president of facilities, construction and Applied Petroleum Technologies Ltd. (APT). He will be responsible for the company's maintenance, new store and capital expenditure programs. APT is a subsidiary of Susser Holdings that works closely with its retail and wholesale divisions to provide construction and maintenance management services, as well as environmental services.
Sebastian began his Susser career in 1996 and has held a variety of operational and marketing positions with the company, including area sales manager, category manager and division manager. He was promoted to vice president of operations in 2004 and senior vice president of operations in 2008.
"With the growing complexity of adding over 30 new stores and nearly 1,000 new employees a year, we need additional organizational depth and experience," said Stripes President and CEO Steve DeSutter. "We are very pleased to name Sid to our management team and are confident Richard's intimate knowledge of our stores will result in meaningful process improvement and efficiencies in our maintenance and capital programs."
These management moves come as Susser recently opened two more Stripes convenience stores, bringing the total number of new stores completed since the beginning of this year to eight.
The company completed a sale/leaseback transaction for the two new stores at the end of May for $6.7 million. This latest sale by Susser Holdings to Susser Petroleum Partners LP brings the total number of new-build store "dropdowns" to 18 since Susser Petroleum Partners' initial public offering of units in September 2012. The total cost of these stores sold to Susser Petroleum Partners, including post-completion "true-up," was $73 million, the company said.
Susser Holdings Corp. is a family-led business based in Corpus Christi, Texas, that operates approximately 565 convenience stores in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma under the Stripes banner. Restaurant service is available in approximately 360 of its stores, primarily under the proprietary Laredo Taco Co. brand.
Susser Holdings also is majority owner of the general partnership Susser Petroleum Partners LP, which distributes 1.5 billion gallons of motor fuel annually to Stripes stores, independently operated consignment locations, convenience stores and retail fuel outlets operated by independent operators, and other commercial customers in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana.