Tuesday, May 8, 2018
NRC Launches New Division for Small C-Store Retailers
Says sector is ‘massively underserved’
Source: CSP Daily News
By Greg Lindenberg, EditorCHICAGO -- Real-estate services company NRC Realty & Capital Advisors LLC has formed a new business unit to serve smaller clients. NRC Small Business Solutions (SBS) will provide real-estate brokerage and financial advisory services to single-site and small-chain convenience-store operators and fuel marketers across the country.
With the increasing pace of industry consolidation and intense new-to-industry competition from well-capitalized companies, NRC said it expects the pace of industry exits of c-store owners and operators with fewer than 10 stores to increase significantly over the next five years.
Retailers thinking of selling a single store or a group of stores have no national resources that provide services solely to the c-store and fuel marketer industries, NRC said. The largest providers have been local real-estate brokers and business brokers with little knowledge of the c-store industry or the value drivers that maximize price, and that do not have any relationships with the larger national and regional aggregators and smaller companies that are aggressively acquiring stores across the country, it said.
Few commercial brokers understand fuel margins, fuel supply, channels of trade, branding value or environmental issues that are critical in offering stores in this industry for sale, and they have limited reach in finding buyers who may be located outside of their immediate local markets. As a result, some retailers only approach the largest c-store company in their area without seeing what other buyers might offer, NRC said.
“This sector of the convenience-store industry is massively underserved. The SBS platform is designed to provide the transactional services small operators are looking for right now and over the next five years as the entire marketplace shifts,” said Evan Gladstone, NRC’s executive managing director. “We are very excited to offer our new brokerage services specifically targeted at the small retailer using our 160,000-name proprietary buyer database and our long-term relationships with companies large and small throughout the country.”
NRC Realty & Capital Advisors, Chicago, provides real estate and financial advisory services to the c-store and petroleum industries and specializes in the accelerated sale of commercial real estate. Its experience in the c-store arena includes portfolio evaluation and analysis; refinancing, recapitalization and sale-leaseback financing options; and merger-and-acquisition advisory services.
To see a list of convenience stores for sale and gas stations for sale, click here.