Kum & Go owners reportedly consider sale
- The owners of Kum & Go are interested in selling its chain of c-stores.
- The Krause family is exploring several options, according to a Reuters report.
- The number of convenience stores in the U.S. has declined during the past several years.
The owners of Kum & Go are looking for potential buyers to sell the popular c-store chain, Reuters reported.
According to the Feb. 14 report, the Krause family, which owns the chain and founded it more than six decades ago, is working with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to secure buyers for the c-store in a deal that would value the company at around $2 billion.
The report cited people familiar with the matter who were not named. In addition to a possible sale, Kum & Go’s owners are considering other options, including refinancing, real estate leasebacks or other forms of recapitalization, the Reuters report said.
Kum & Go operates more than 400 locations in about a dozen states in the Midwest. Kum & Go is part of the Krause Group and was founded in Iowa by Bill Krause in Tony Gentle in 1959, per Reuters. The business is helmed by CEO Tanner Krause, who assumed the position from his father in 2021.
The c-store chain also in February announced it would deploy floor-scrubbing robots across all of its stores to free up time for its employees, Retail Leader reported.
The number of convenience stores in the U.S. has continued to decline during the past several years. According to a 2022 report from the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), 148,026 c-stores operated in the U.S. in December 2021, about one c-store for every 2,246 people. That was about 1.5% fewer stores than in 2020, which NACS attributed to struggles imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and overall consolidation in the convenience industry.