Ahoskie, North Carolina-based Jernigan Oil Company Inc. has sold its convenience retail assets to Sunoco Retail LLC, according to a press release from Matrix Capital Markets Group, which advised the sale. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
Jernigan’s convenience retail division consists of 56 Duck Thru Food Stores located throughout eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia.
“The company was founded by L.S. Jernigan Sr. and his son, L.S. Jernigan Jr., in June 1948 as a farm machinery sales business. In 1983, third-generation owner James 'Duck' Harrell, alongside his wife Jerri, opened the first convenience store in Murfreesboro, North Carolina. Under Duck and Jerri’s leadership, the convenience retail division grew to 24 locations, making it the largest family-owned convenience retail chain in Eastern North Carolina at the time,” Matrix said.
In 2006, Michael Harrell succeeded his father, Duck, as president of Jernigan Oil Company. Michael, along with his wife Billie-Joe and their three children, Miles, Jordan and Mary-Joe, continued to grow the convenience retail division in North Carolina as well as in Virginia.
Jernigan said it will use the proceeds from the sale of its convenience retail division to reinvest and grow its other businesses, including propane distribution, commercial fuels, fuels transportation and marina operations.
In other recent acquisition news, in January, Sunoco purchased 36 c-stores from Pops Mart Fuel LLC, which owned 54 stores across North Carolina, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
Last year, Sunoco acquired Parkland Corporation, gaining over 200 stores in the United States. With the acquisition, Sunoco became the largest independent fuel distributor in the Americas.