Kum & Go Buys Git-n-Go's Assets
TULSA, Okla. -- Des Moines, Iowa-based Kum & Go outbid oil giant Sinclair Petroleum Corp. in a bankruptcy auction Tuesday to buy nearly all of the assets of Git-n-Go Inc. for more than $13 million, reported the Associated Press.
Kum & Go obtained 76 convenience stores in Oklahoma and Missouri plus their inventories, pushing the store total for the unit of privately held Krause Gentle Corp. to about 450.
The purchase will expand Kum & Go's annual revenues to more than $1 billion and increase its presence in the two states, where it previously had just 15 stores, said CEO W. A. Bill Krause. "We all know that if Sinclair wanted them, we would have been the proverbial fly on an elephant's ear," Krause said. "They obviously had a number in mind."
Kum & Go and Salt Lake City-based Sinclair exchanged growing bids for about 10 minutes before Kum & Go's offer of $9 million plus the roughly $4 million inventories prompted Sinclair's Peter Johnson to bow out.
The sale marks the end for Tulsa-based Git-n-Go, which opened its first store in Tulsa in 1958. The company filed for bankruptcy in late January after losing $8 million in 2003. The chain, owned by grocery distributor Hale-Halsell Co., which filed Chapter 11 in March, subsequently closed 38 stores and laid off hundreds of workers.
Krause did not know when the 76 Git-n-Go stores would begin bearing Kum & Go signs, but the company hopes to close the sale in time for the key Fourth of July weekend. The sale is scheduled to close by July 7.
Kum & Go obtained 76 convenience stores in Oklahoma and Missouri plus their inventories, pushing the store total for the unit of privately held Krause Gentle Corp. to about 450.
The purchase will expand Kum & Go's annual revenues to more than $1 billion and increase its presence in the two states, where it previously had just 15 stores, said CEO W. A. Bill Krause. "We all know that if Sinclair wanted them, we would have been the proverbial fly on an elephant's ear," Krause said. "They obviously had a number in mind."
Kum & Go and Salt Lake City-based Sinclair exchanged growing bids for about 10 minutes before Kum & Go's offer of $9 million plus the roughly $4 million inventories prompted Sinclair's Peter Johnson to bow out.
The sale marks the end for Tulsa-based Git-n-Go, which opened its first store in Tulsa in 1958. The company filed for bankruptcy in late January after losing $8 million in 2003. The chain, owned by grocery distributor Hale-Halsell Co., which filed Chapter 11 in March, subsequently closed 38 stores and laid off hundreds of workers.
Krause did not know when the 76 Git-n-Go stores would begin bearing Kum & Go signs, but the company hopes to close the sale in time for the key Fourth of July weekend. The sale is scheduled to close by July 7.