dec-2017

80 81 Stores that are looking for suitable buyers may be those whose owners are nearing retirement or who “don’t have the energy or passion for the business anymore.And a lot of what we get to look at, a lot of the opportunities that we get calls about, are small- er than what the major players are interested in, so there’s a small pool of buyers,”he adds. Once a location is bought, the company has to go to work converting its operations.“The first thing we’ve always had to do at sites we’ve acquired was install our back office systems and then we have to hold a training event,”Redmond says.“We try to keep the store managers and all the store level em- ployees in an acquisition and we train them on our software, adapt them to our price book for scanning, and that, in itself, is a sixmonth to a year process, each time.And, of course,when you’re buying com- puters and software for ten or twenty stores at a time- that eats into your budget, short-term. But, we find that investing in the business, investing in those locations, does yield a nice long-term value. We found, from the stores we have acquired, that we have been a better operator and we’ve achieved great sales growth both inside and outside –volume increases at the pump, which relates to inside sales growth.” For now, Redmond says there are no plans to expand beyond North Carolina. “That would be a great long-term plan, but I think that there are certainly a lot of oppor- tunities to go east or west.” Whenever the company buys a location that is already being supplied by one of the three major RAYMER OIL COMPANY oil companies for which Raymer is a jobber, it can continue to supply it with fuel.“For example,we are a BP jobber, so we can take assumption of that site and continue to supply it with BP fuel,”Redmond says.“Some- times, you’ll have stations and their contract is up. At that point, we can take those to the three compa- nies that we do business with and see which one of them is going to present the best proposal to brand that site, going forward.” In 2015, Raymer purchased several stores in the Fast Phil’s chain, and Redmond has decided to keep that brand’s name. “My parents’ original store was Phil’s Food Mart,” he says. “My dad’s first name is Phillip, so it still fits. My mother passed away in 2014; she spent my entire life working at Phil’s Food Mart, so I’ve got a little emo- tional attachment to Phil’s.” “The things that I’m most proud of are the way in which we’ve grown and the efficiency with which we’ve done it,” says Redmond, summing up. “The responsible use of capital while still remaining true to our family values. I had the benefit of a great upbringing and that still comes through in the company, today.We’re very community-driven, very charitable, and very involved.Those are the things that are most important to me.” n Quo Vadis LLC www.quo.cc PREFERRED VENDOR