The Kent Cos.
Today, The Kent Cos. operates 72 convenience stores, including 61 Kent Kwik stores in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Tennessee, and 11 Bountyland locations in South Carolina and North Carolina. The company also supplies fuel to more than 200 dealer sites, including in Louisiana, Texas and Alabama. Kent Kwik stores primarily offer Chevron-branded fuel, while the Bountyland stores feature Exxonbranded gas. RAPID EXPANSION
In a little over two years, the company has nearly doubled its footprint. In late 2020, the company entered the Tennessee market with the purchase of Buy Fast stores in Fayetteville, Tenn. The acquisition included branded and unbranded dealer supply accounts, a commercial lubes and fuel distribution business, and a bulk plant and office. The move marked the first time the company expanded outside its Southwest roots. It also gave Kent a strategic foothold to support its plans for growth in central Tennessee. “It’s been a journey,” said Bill Kent, CEO of The Kent Cos. “We’ve been bidding on acquisitions for six to seven years. We’ve seemed to always be second or third and found a lot of public companies, in our opinion, that were overpaying for companies. We just kept swinging, and we got an opportunity to buy into Tennessee.” In March 2021, The Kent Cos. expanded in the Texas market, acquiring six stores from Connel Oil Co. dba Mr. C’s convenience stores in Mineral Wells and Weatherford, Texas, along with branded and unbranded dealer supply accounts and a bulk plant. In October 2021, The Kent Cos. purchased 11 Bountyland convenience stores, 51 dealer locations and commercial accounts from Bountyland Petroleum and Bountyland Food Service, based in Seneca, S.C. The acquisition allowed Kent to grow into the South Carolina and North Carolina markets. “We really made a connection with the owner of Bountyland, David Land, and I think he felt like we were similar to their philosophy, and we certainly thought he was to ours. We were impressed with the operation, the caliber of the people, the facilities and everything,” Kent said. While Buy Fast and Mr. C’s locations are converting to the Kent Kwik name and image, Kent decided to leave the Bountyland name in place for the time being. “We feel like they have a good name in the 26
CSTORE DECISIONS •
May 2022
Bill Kent, CEO of The Kent Cos., purchased the company from his father in 1984. At the time, the chain had about 12 stores, three lube centers, 30 dealers and 75 employees. Today it boasts 72 stores, 200-plus dealer locations and 1,300 employee positions.
South Carolina market, and we want to try to leverage that,” he said. Part of The Kent Cos. strategic vision is to reduce its dependence on west Texas and the Permian Basin because of the volatility of the oil and gas market in that region. “Our headquarters and most of our stores are in the Permian Basin, which is the largest oil field in North America and one of the largest in the world, and with that comes some good things, but with it comes a lot of bad things,” Kent said. “One of those is that you have extreme ups and downs. Prices go up, and things are great, but you can’t find employees because the oil field and the service companies overpay people so egregiously that you can’t even compete.” “Then the oil industry will collapse with price collapse,” he added. “Then you have people wanting jobs, but the pay rates are distorted, and if you’ve chased those salaries up there, you’re in trouble because the industry changes. So it’s a challenge. It’s a difficult market.” Because of that volatility, Kent decided to evaluate additional areas of operation outside the Southwest. cstoredecisions.com
