Casey’s General Stores to enter Texas with Lone Star acquisition

Casey’s General Stores Inc. is acquiring W. Douglass Distributing Ltd.’s 22 Lone Star Food Stores, which will bring its convenience stores to Texas, the retailer’s 17th state.

The deal follows Douglass Distributing’s sale in late October of its wholesale businesses, consisting of propane, lubricant, diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) and wholesale and commercial fuel businesses to Commerce City, Colorado-based Offen Petroleum LLC.

All of the convenience stores except two are owned by Douglass Distributing in fee, and the stores are located within a 60-mile radius of Sherman, Texas.

The transaction is closing over the next few weeks and should be completed by the end of November. Casey’s is retaining all of the employees at the stores.

Douglass Distributing was originally founded in 1947 as Humble Oil and was purchased by Bill Douglass in 1981 when he acquired the Exxon consignee located in Sherman, Texas.

“The Lone Star stores are high-quality stores located on great corners in fantastic markets. We appreciate everything that Bill Douglass and the Douglass family have done in this community and for the convenience industry,” said Darren Rebelez, president and CEO of Casey’s. “These stores will serve as a springboard into the great state of Texas for Casey’s, while still located within our self-distribution network. We look forward to continuing to serve these communities, welcoming our new team members to the Casey's family, and bringing our delicious pizza to North Texas soon.”

Douglass Distributing CEO Bill Douglass said he has known Rebelez for many years and has been impressed by his work with Casey's. 

“We have taken great pride in the convenience store chain that we have built over the past 40 years, and we owe much of our success to our dedicated store employees,” Douglass said. “Casey’s has a culture very similar to that of our company, and I am confident that our stores will be in good hands in the Casey’s network.”

NRC Realty & Capital Advisors LLC served as exclusive financial advisor to Douglass Distributing.

“Coordinating two deals at once—one with Offen Petroleum and one with Casey’s—was no small undertaking,” Douglass said, “and I truly appreciate the efforts of Paul Reuter, Denny Ruben, Jake Johnson and the rest of the NRC team in making sure that both transactions proceeded smoothly and on schedule.”

Denny Ruben, executive managing director of NRC Realty & Capital Advisors, said, “This has been an incredible journey for the Douglass family. We at NRC have appreciated the opportunity to represent Bill and his family in the second phase of the company sale consisting of the sale of the Lone Star Food Stores to Casey’s.”

Chicago-based NRC provides real estate and financial advisory services to the c-store and petroleum industries in North America. Those services include portfolio evaluation and analysis; portfolio and single-site store sales and merger-and-acquisition (M&A) advisory services.

Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey’s has more than 2,500 convenience stores in 16 Midwestern states.

This story originally appeared in WGB sister publication, CSP Daily News.