Royal Buying Group Vet to Help Troubled Retailers

BURR RIDGE, Ill. — Convenience store industry veteran Michael Zielinski has launched Retail Management Services Inc. (RMS) to help troubled retail chains.

Along with many strategic alliance partners, RMS can provide best practices to create successful succession plans whether a retail chain needs a short-term or long-term operating company to achieve necessary financial goals.

Working with court-appointed trustees, banks and/or other lending institutions, work out groups or bankruptcy attorneys, RMS provides a team of experienced veterans with practice in the petroleum, convenience store, automotive repair, quick-service, rental car, towing, body shop and other retail industries.

"There will always be change in retail chains and their ability to stay financially successful is more important than ever," said Zielinski, president of RMS. "Whether a retail chain can overcome internal and/or external financial pressures will determine their ability to stay financially accountable to their lender. When they cannot, we can provide that leadership and expert adjustments to that chain’s business model in order to bring that chain back to a viable business venture."

Zielinski has more than 37 years of experience in the convenience store, petroleum and automotive industries. He attended the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill., majoring in business administration with a concentration in marketing. He then owned and operated multiple retail locations involving Continental Oil Co., Marathon Oil Co., Amoco Oil Co. and Shell Oil Products US.

He is one of the original founders of Royal Buying Group Inc., a national merchandising and marketing organization representing wholesaler and retailer locations of all brands of convenience stores, petroleum suppliers, college bookstores and independent pharmacies.

The principals of RMS have a combined experience of more than 50 years in the retail arena, including operating chains of one to 50 stores simultaneously.