NORFOLK, Va.—Miller Oil Company Inc., dba Millers Energy, has sold its 23 Miller’s Neighborhood Market convenience stores to Global Partners LP, which also is acquiring more than 70 Miller Oil wholesale dealer accounts in Virginia and North Carolina. In addition, Sunshine Gasoline Distributors Inc. has acquired all of Miller Oil’s wholesale dealer accounts in Florida. The companies didn’t disclose terms of the deals.
Miller Oil Company said it will retain its heating oil distribution and HVAC service business with operations in Virginia, stretching from Virginia Beach to Manassas.
“After 40 years in a great industry that gave me and my family so much, we decided to focus on other areas of our business,” said Jeffrey Miller, Miller Oil Company president. We feel Global is a good fit culturally and feel confident our brand and employees will be well taken care of.”
Miller was founded in 1977 by the late Augustus “Gus” Miller when he purchased Exxon Company USA’s home heating oil business in Norfolk, Virginia. Throughout the 1980s, the company experienced significant growth as the business expanded into convenience retailing and petroleum marketing. In the 2000s, Miller Oil expanded its fuels distribution business into southern Florida with the acquisition of a dealer portfolio.
“The addition of Miller’s significantly expands our retail presence in the mid-Atlantic region and complements our portfolio of over 80 controlled sites and dealer network,” said Global Partners President and CEO Eric Slifka. “Acquiring these high-quality locations enables us to further capitalize on our scale, supply relationships, and our integrated model to enhance product margin along each step of the value chain,” Slifka said. “Like Global, Miller’s is a family-founded business with shared values around community and a commitment to customer experience. This purchase demonstrates our appetite to grow our book of business.”
Global Partners is based in Waltham, Massachusetts. With more than 1,600 locations primarily in the Northeast, Global Partners is one of the region’s largest independent owners, suppliers and operators of gasoline stations and convenience stores. Global also owns, controls or has access to one of the largest terminal networks in New England and New York, through which it distributes gasoline, distillates, residual oil and renewable fuels to wholesalers, retailers and commercial customers.
Matrix Capital Markets provided merger and acquisition advisory services to Miller, which included valuation advisory, marketing the business through a confidential, structured sale process, and negotiation of the transaction. The transaction was managed by Cedric Fortemps, CFA, co-head of Matrix’s Downstream Energy & Convenience Retail Investment Banking Group; Martin McElroy Jr., CFA, senior associate; and Michael Tucker, CFA, senior analyst.