Double Kwiks sell to Fas Mart
JODI DEAL / Staff Writer
Southwest Virginia's familiar Double Kwik signs are coming down. Owner Wendell Barnette has sold the 58 stores to Fas Mart, based in central Virginia. (Richard Jessee photo)
That convenience store you stopped by this morning to pick up some coffee or gas up may have looked like a Double Kwik, but it wasn't.
Last night, teams of officials from Fas Mart, a Mechanicsville-based convenience store chain that includes 210 stores, went from Double Kwik to Double Kwik, switching the store computers and gas tanks over to their own operating systems.
This morning, all 58 Double Kwik stores in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee technically opened as Fas Marts. Fas Mart's parent company, GPM Investments LLC, closed on a deal today to purchase all of the stores from Barnette Enterprises, owned and operated by Wendell Barnette and his wife, Brenda.
The first Double Kwik was a small store opened in 1960 and operated by Barnette's parents, Hogue and Verda Barnette. In 1970, Barnette and his brother, Jerry, purchased the business from their parents. The Barnette family ran the original store, which is located in the Glamorgan section of Wise on Highway 23, until the brothers decided to start expanding in 1981. Since then, stores have opened steadily across the region. Jerry Barnette retired in 1994.
Wendell Barnette said in a Tuesday telephone interview that he didn't really have a succession plan for the stores in his family. His twin sons, Ted and Todd, have successful salon businesses and are involved in several other business ventures. His daughter, Wendy, and her husband, Andy Scott, work in real estate development.
"These days, you have to keep growing and growing, and getting bigger and bigger, because the more volume you're doing, the more potential profit you can make," Barnette said. "But we had grown about all we could handle, and didn't want to keep growing. We're ready to relax some, and stop working 12-15 hours per day."
Because of Fas Mart's size - it currently owns and operates 210 stores and supplies another 170 dealers - the company is able to offer great deals on gas, snacks and everything else you're used to finding in a convenience store, Barnette said.
"We really feel like we picked the best folks to sell to. They should do good for the area," Barnette said, noting that the chain is "big in food service, and also big in customer service."
BIG CHANGES COMING FAST
The Double Kwik stores will slowly be re-branded to the Fas Mart name, implementing Fas Mart colors, signs and programs, GPM CEO Dave McComas said in a Wednesday telephone interview.
"It'll be a store-by-store thing," McComas explained, noting that his company has selected five stores to completely remodel in the coming months. And they'll move fast - McComas noted that some stores might be completely re-made by Christmas.
Those five stores include the Exxon in front of Lowe's in Wise, the Bee Line in Wise, the Exxon in Big Stone Gap just off of U.S. 23, the Exxon in St. Paul, and the store in Hansonville at the intersection where drivers decide whether to drive to Abingdon or Lebanon.
Every one of those stores will get every program Fas Mart offers in its other Fas Mart and Shore Stop stores, which span Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and central, eastern and northern Virginia. That way, Fas Mart officials can see which programs local consumers like.
Improvements local customers can expect include more fresh food offerings, including fresh rotisserie chicken, and an electronic loyalty program, through which customers can earn discounts and free products.
The loyalty program isn't like a grocery store or drug store "membership" card, which applies the same discount for every customer to many items in the store, McComas said.
This is more like an airline rewards program - you earn membership status levels, like gold and platinum, and get certain benefits with each level. Status levels are assessed monthly, he explained.
The brand of gas you get at the pump at each of Double Kwik's stores will likely change, McComas noted, although it's not yet clear which stores will get what brands. Most local stores will likely carry Valero gas, which is Fas Mart's principal brand. McComas noted that Valero is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, and is U.S. owned and operated. Some stores may carry another brand, but McComas isn't yet sure what it will be.
According to McComas, his company paid $46 million for the Double Kwik chain.
LOCAL EMPLOYEES
Double Kwik has about 665 local employees who serve an average of 45-55,000 customers each day, Barnette estimated. Of those, almost every one has been hired by Fas Mart.
A management team will still operate out of Double Kwik's Glamorgan headquarters, led by Greg Cress, who will be general manager for all local Fas Mart stores. A few office positions, about four or five, were no longer needed, Barnette noted, but every single employee was offered some kind of job with Fas Mart. Some employees who had had office jobs did not want to take jobs as sales associates, so they chose to leave the company, he explained.
But Fas Mart has chosen to keep all of Double Kwik's supervisors, who will be district managers now, and will be getting pay increases. Other employees can expect slightly better benefits and potential pay increases too.
"They have very solid management, and they're good to their people," Barnette said, adding that the company is big enough to treat employees even better than Double Kwik could.
Barnette says he'll still be associated with the company in some ways. He has a construction crew and a background in construction, so he plans to help Fas Mart build new stores. He also has many connections in the local convenience store industry, and may serve as a consultant if Fas Mart buys out other local chains.
McComas has nothing but praise for Barnette and the local stores.
"Wendell has done such a fabulous job building this chain," McComas said. "We're very excited about that market."