NEW: Rhode Island-Founded Cumberland Farms Sold to British Retailer
GoLocalProv Business Team
NEW: Rhode Island-Founded Cumberland Farms Sold to British Retailer
In 1972, Cumberland Farms was innovative when it became one of the first places anywhere to offer self-serve gasoline — perfectly timed for the oil crisis.
Now, UK-based EG Group has entered into a massive deal to buy Cumberland Farms.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIn 2017, GoLocal reported that the Haseotes family, who still owns Cumberland Farms and in 2015 was #73 on Forbes list of America's Richest Families, was back in court - over family-owned land in Massachusetts.
As GoLocal reported:
George Haseotes was in Providence Superior Court suing his sister, Lily (Haseotes) Bentas and V.S. Haseotes & Sons Limited Partnership for what he alleges is Bentas’ refusal as the Managing Partner of the Partnership to release records and documents regarding properties owned in Massachusetts.
Cumberland Farms - EG Group Deal
"Over nearly eight decades the Haseotes family have built Cumberland Farms into an outstanding portfolio of large, modern facilities run by a team of associates who are connected to the communities they serve. It is rare that an asset of this quality becomes available and we are delighted to have been successful in a highly competitive process," said Zuber Issa, founder and co-CEO, EG Group said in Convenience Store magazine. "We look forward to welcoming the talented team at Cumberland Farms into the EG family."
According to Convenience Store magazine, the acquisition of Cumberland Farms will take the EG Group's U.S. network to nearly 1,700 stores, operating in 30 states and retailing over 2.5 billion gallons of fuel with merchandise sales of more than $3 billion on an annualized basis.
"We very much look forward to becoming part of the EG family, as it is clear that both Cumberland Farms and EG Group share a common vision for excellence in convenience retailing and commitment to investment in our people," said Ari Haseotes, president and CEO of Cumberland Farms.
Today, Cumberland Farms has almost 600 stores in 8 states, and employs over 6,000 people.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, PwC and Rothschild & Co are acting as financial advisors to EG. Allen & Overy LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP are acting as legal advisors to EG. RPS Gaiatech are advising the company on environmental risk management.
EG was founded in 2001 by the Issa Family, EG Group's portfolio consists of roughly 5,200 sites across Europe, Australia, and the United States.
EG was co-founded by brothers Mohsin Issa and Zuber Issa of Indian Gujarati descent in 2001, who started the business from a single site in Bury, Greater Manchester.[
In October 2015, the private equity firm TDR Capital acquired a stake in the company. In October 2016, Euro Garages acquired the Dutch headquartered EFR Group from TDR Capital to form Intervias Group, later renamed EG Group. according to press reports
The deal makes EG Group one of the largest convenience store chain as EG Group's U.S. retail arm is No. 13 on the 2019 Convenience Store News Top 100. Cumberland Farms follows at No. 14.