EG Group is a British retailer headquartered in
Blackburn
Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...
, United Kingdom, which operates
filling station
A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel.
Gasoli ...
s,
convenience store
A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...
s and
fast-food restaurant
A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast food, fast-food cuisine and has minimal Foodservice#Table service, table service. The food served ...
s in Europe, the United States and Australia. The group was created through the combination of Euro Garages and EFR Group in November 2016.
It remains one of the largest privately owned businesses in the United Kingdom.
History
Euro Garages was co founded by brothers
Mohsin and Zuber Issa
Mohsin Issa CBE: and Zuber Issa CBE: are British-Indian billionaire brothers and businessmen who both co-founded Euro Garages (EG), a chain of petrol filling stations and convenience stores that operate in Europe, the United States and Austra ...
in 2001, who expanded the business from a single site (at a cost of £150,000) in
Bury, Greater Manchester
Bury ( ) is a market town on the River Irwell in Greater Manchester, England. Metropolitan Borough of Bury is administered from the town, which had an estimated population of 78,723 in 2015.
The town is within the historic county boundarie ...
to circa 340 sites in the UK. The growth co-incided with oil companies selling off their consumer petrol station assets to focus on their core production and refining business. In October 2015, the
private equity firm
A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leve ...
TDR Capital
TDR Capital is a British private equity firm headquartered in London, England.
History
TDR Capital was co-founded in 2002 by Manjit Dale, Stephen Robertson, and Tudor Capital. acquired a stake in the company.
The Dutch-headquartered European Forecourt Retail Group was founded in 2007 as the European energy retail and marketing arm of the Israeli firm
Delek
Delek Group is an Israeli conglomerate and one of Israel's largest companies, Delek Group is involved in the energy and infrastructure, with investments in upstream and downstream energy, water desalination and power plants. Delek Group' subsidi ...
, and was also acquired by TDR Capital in August 2014. In October 2016 Euro acquired EFR to form the Intervias Group, later renamed the EG Group. As a consequence of these transactions, TDR Capital now owns 50% of the enlarged group, with Zuber Issa owning 25% and Mohsin Issa the remaining 25%.
EG Group's acquisitions have been largely funded by debt, with a net debt of over £7.3 billion at the end of 2019.
Major acquisitions
United Kingdom and Ireland
In February 2017, EG Group purchased 78 UK properties from
Kout Food Group
Kout Food Group K.S.C.C. is a Kuwaiti-based conglomerate, founded in 1982, operating in Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Kurdistan-Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and formerly in the United Kingdom. The business also offer catering serv ...
, this including 70
Little Chef
Little Chef was a chain of restaurants in the United Kingdom, founded in 1958 by entrepreneur Sam Alper, who was inspired by American diners. The chain was famous for the "Olympic Breakfast" – its version of a full English – as well as it ...
sites (some with attached
Burger King
Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based res ...
and
Subway franchises) and 8 standalone Burger King sites. EG Group would then transform the Little Chef sites into its franchise partners (such as Greggs and Starbucks) by October 2018. The group founded EG Diner as a temporary measure in January 2018, when its license to use the Little Chef name expired, effectively ending the Little Chef brand after almost 60 years.
In early 2020, EG Group announced that they were opening 150 American Bakery outlets under a partnership with
Cinnabon
Cinnabon is an American chain of baked goods stores and kiosks, normally found in areas with high pedestrian traffic such as malls, airports and rest stops. The company's signature item is a cinnamon roll. As of December 2017, there are more th ...
by 2025.
In March 2020, EG Group became KFC's largest franchisee in the UK through the acquisition of 145 KFC outlets in the UK and Ireland.
In October 2020, EG’s owners won a deal to buy the supermarket chain
Asda
Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of York ...
from
Walmart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
for £6.8 billion, bringing it back into British hands after more than 20 years. Questions were raised after its auditor,
Deloitte
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...
, "suddenly quit" to be replaced by
KPMG
KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations.
Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...
.
However, the group indicated there were no auditing disagreements.
This accquistiion would mean EG Group would work with Asda to create 'Asda on the Move'.
In May 2021, EG Group bought
Leon Restaurants
Leon (branded as LEON.) is a fast food chain based in the United Kingdom, established in 2004. The company had around 70 outlets when it was bought by EG Group in 2021.
History
''Leon'' was founded by John Vincent and Henry Dimbleby with che ...
for a reported £100 million.
In October 2021, EG Group bought
Cooplands
Cooplands (Coopland & Son (Scarborough) Ltd) is the second largest bakery chain in the UK with over 160 outlets and 12 cafes located primarily across Yorkshire, County Durham and Lincolnshire in the United Kingdom. Cooplands produces takeaway f ...
, the UK's second-largest bakery operating mainly in
North East England
North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...
and
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
.
Europe
In November 2017, the business secured approximately 1,000 petrol stations from
Esso
Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (the phonetic p ...
in Germany, which were transferred and integrated into the existing EG network in October 2018.
United States
On 5 February 2018, EG Group announced that it would purchase nearly eight hundred
Kroger
The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States.
Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincin ...
convenience stores for $2.15 billion. Later that month, EG Group announced that it had completed the acquisition of circa 1,200 sites in Italy from Esso. In April 2018, EG Group completed the acquisition of a portfolio of 97 sites in the Netherlands to supplement is existing network in the country. In December 2018, EG completed its acquisition of 225 sites of Minit Mart from Travel Centers of America LLC for upwards of US$330m.
In July 2019, EG completed its acquisition of fifty four Fastrac branded sites in the United States, and announced a deal to acquire sixty nine sites operated by Certified Oil, also in the United States. On 31 July 2019, EG Group announced having entered a binding agreement to purchase
Cumberland Farms
Cumberland Farms, colloquially known as Cumby's, is a regional chain of convenience stores based in Westborough, Massachusetts, operating primarily in New York, New England and Florida. Cumberland Farms operates 566 retail stores, gas stations ...
.
In November 2020, EG Group entered into a binding agreement for the acquisition of 18 locations of
Schrader Oil
Schrader is a family name very common roughly within the Triangle Hannover-Hamburg-Berlin within Germany (so-called " Eastfalia", part of today's states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt). It means tailor. Carriers of this name have spread all o ...
in
Fort Collins, Colorado
Fort Collins is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Larimer County, Colorado
Larimer County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 359 ...
.
Australia
On 9 November 2018, Australian retailer
Woolworths
Woolworth, Woolworth's, or Woolworths may refer to:
Businesses
* F. W. Woolworth Company, the original US-based chain of "five and dime" (5¢ and 10¢) stores
* Woolworths Group (United Kingdom), former operator of the Woolworths chain of shops ...
announced to the
Australian Securities Exchange
Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...
it had entered into a binding agreement to sell its 540 fuel convenience sites to EG Group for 1.72bn.
Potential takeover
An April 2022 report in ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' reported that Circle K parent
Alimentation Couche-Tard
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., or simply Couche-Tard, is a Canadian multinational operator of convenience stores. The company has 15,000 stores across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuani ...
is in talks to buy EG Group. Should a deal go through, it would significantly boost Circle K's presence in several markets including Europe as well as giving it a location in every US state except
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
.
Operations
United States
![TurkeyHillCF](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/TurkeyHillCF.jpg)
In the United States, EG America has quickly become the fourth largest
convenience store
A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...
chain with its various brands following
7-Eleven
7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. A ...
's purchase of
Speedway
Speedway may refer to:
Racing Race tracks
*Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta
*Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana
Types of races and race cours ...
with
Circle K
Circle K Stores, Inc. is a Canadian chain of convenience stores headquartered in Laval, Quebec, Canada. It is owned by the multinational company Couche-Tard. Founded in 1951 in El Paso, Texas, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 1 ...
and
Casey's
Casey's Retail Company (doing business as Casey's) is a chain of convenience stores in the Midwestern and Southern United States. The company is headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines. As of April 30, 2019, Casey's had 2,146 stor ...
occupying the other spots ahead of EG America. EG America has opted to keep the various brand names as opposed to uniting them under one brand, but has made efforts to unite them: for instance, all locations began to sell Cumberland Farms branded coffee products, while locations acquired after the initial purchase of Kroger's convenience store chain have slowly started adopting the abstract
continental United States
The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...
logo that was originally owned by Kroger. All have begun having a shared
loyalty program
A loyalty program is a marketing strategy designed to encourage customers to continue to shop at or use the services of a business associated with the program. Today, such programs cover most types of commerce, each having varying features and ...
.
Some EG America locations have begun offering franchised food concepts at their locations, such as
Subway,
Burger King
Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based res ...
,
Sbarro
Sbarro, LLC is an American pizzeria chain that specializes in New York-style pizza sold by the slice and other Italian-American cuisine. In 2011, the company was ranked 15th in foreign sales among U.S.-based quick-serve and fast-casual compan ...
, and
Hunt Brothers Pizza
Hunt Brothers Pizza is an American pizza restaurant chain. It was founded in 1991 in Nashville, Tennessee. The store's locations are primarily within convenience stores.
History
Hunt Brothers Pizza was established in 1991 and is based in Na ...
, to compete better with chains that have long-established in-house food products, such as
Sheetz
Sheetz, Inc. is an American chain of convenience stores and coffee shops owned by the Sheetz family. The stores sell custom food, beverages and convenience store items, with all locations having offered 24/7 service since the 1980s. Nearly all of ...
,
Wawa,
Rutter's
Rutter's is a chain of convenience stores and gas stations with 82 locations in Central and Western Pennsylvania, the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, and central Maryland. Stores are open 24 hours a day and have a made-to-order food counter, ...
,
QuickTrip, Casey's, and
Buc-ee's
Buc-ee's is a chain of country stores, gas stations, and Tesla Superchargers created and owned by Arch "Beaver" Aplin III, headquartered in Lake Jackson, Texas The chain was first founded in 1982 in Clute, Texas and began expansion with its first ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Euro Garages
2001 establishments in England
British companies established in 2001
Companies based in Blackburn
Filling stations in the United Kingdom
Filling stations
Multinational companies headquartered in England
Retail companies established in 2001
Retail companies of the United Kingdom