Little General Adds First Ohio Convenience Store

BECKLEY, W. Va. -- Little General Store Inc. has added five locations to its line-up of convenience stores, including its first location in Ohio.

The retailer took over the recent locations from Prima Marketing/7-Eleven and has finished converting them to the Little General banner, with the last changing over today. The stores are located in Washington, Pennsboro, Scott Depot and Hurricane, W. Va., and in Albany, Ohio. The company also acquired a land parcel in the move with Prima Marketing. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"We are very happy to welcome the employees and customers of these five locations to the Little General Family. All five of these locations have been known for providing quality customer service for many years," said Brian Waugh, Little General Store's director of retail. "We are excited about the possibilities of these locations, and we would like to thank Prima Marketing/7-Eleven for everything they've done to build these businesses."

All five stores also have gas stations. The store in Washington, at located at 8850 DuPont Road, is branded BP. The store in Pennsboro, located at 415 Myles Ave., is branded Marathon. The store in Scott Depot, located at 4044 Teays Valley Rd., is branded Shell. The store in Hurricane, located at 308 Big Hurricane Creek Rd., is branded Exxon, and the store in Albany, Ohio, at 5321 Washington Rd., is branded BP.

The new locations in Scott Depot and Hurricane fall within Little General's existing territory and give the company a total of five convenience stores in Putnam County, W. Va. The other locations will allow the company to expand into two new markets -- the Parkersburg, W. Va., market and Ohio, according to Waugh.

These locations have now all been reset to the Little General image inside the stores and will also have feature an ATM, New River Coffee and Cappuccino, Siberian Chill Frozen Beverages. Little General plans to add branded foodservice to the Albany, Ohio and Hurricane but no details have been announced yet.

"With the acquiring of these locations, we look forward to leveraging our strengths and operating capability to further expand the Little General business model to the residents and travelers in West Virginia and now Ohio," Waugh said.

All total, Little General has acquired eight locations from Prima Marketing this year. The other c-stores are in Princeton and Kegley, W. Va., which Little General took title to in April, as CSNews Online previously reported. The acquisitions followed Prima Marketing's move to sell 26 locations -- a mix of 16 operating convenience stores, five closed stores, one subleased property and four land-only pad sites in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

In addition to its latest acquisitions, Little General is also in the process of building three new convenience stores. Two sites (one with a Shell/Arby's) are in Kanawha County, W. Va., and the third (which will include a Sunoco) is in Fairmont, W. Va. The retailer is also completing the demolition and rebuild of a Marathon/Subway/Godfather Pizza location in Raleigh, W. Va., and is starting a demolition and rebuild project of an existing Burger King in Beckley, W. Va.