Company Will Retain Nearly 100 Quarles Petroleum, Incorporated Employees
RICHMOND, Va., July 25, 2022 — ARKO Corp. (Nasdaq: ARKO) (“ARKO”, the “Company” or “we”), one of the largest convenience store operators and fuel wholesalers in the United States, announced today that GPM Investments, LLC, (“GPM”) a wholly owned subsidiary of ARKO, acquired from Quarles Petroleum, Incorporated (“Quarles”) certain assets (the “Quarles Acquisition”), including 121 proprietary Quarles-branded cardlock sites, management of 63 third party cardlock sites for fleet fueling operations, 46 independent dealer locations, including certain lessee-dealer sites, and a small transportation fleet.
“We plan to continue to pursue acquisitions like the Quarles Acquisition as we focus on strategic growth that generates long-term shareholder value,” said Arie Kotler, President and CEO of ARKO. “The acquired Quarles assets comprise a complementary business that has operated continuously for more than 80 years, and we believe we can grow and expand the Company’s fleet fueling platform and continue to provide best-in-class fuel services and solutions to our customers. In addition, nearly 100 Quarles employees will be retained and become employees of GPM. They are accomplished operators, and we welcome them into our Family of Community Brands.”
The Quarles Acquisition is ARKO’s 21st acquisition since 2013, emphasizing the Company’s aggressive growth strategy. The Quarles Acquisition includes proprietary cardlock locations that fulfill the fuel needs of multiple industries at easily accessible, unmanned fuel sites in prime locations in Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia, management of third-party fueling sites, and the marketing of fuel cards that give customers access to a nationwide network of fueling sites.
Using estimated forward-looking non-GAAP measures, the Company expects that the Quarles Acquisition will add approximately $17.5 million of adjusted EBITDA on an annualized basis after incremental rent of approximately $7.8 million to be paid to Oak Street Real Estate Capital, a Division of Blue Owl Capital, the private equity real estate firm that funded approximately $130 million of the aggregate purchase price.[1]
The Quarles Acquisition is expected to add approximately 160 million gallons, primarily diesel, to the approximately two billion gallons ARKO currently sells annually, as well as fleet fueling card operations that are expected to facilitate the sale of approximately 50 million gallons at third-party locations nationwide.
[1] At this time, ARKO is unable to provide a quantitative reconciliation of estimated forward-looking non-GAAP performance measures without unreasonable efforts due to the carve-out nature of the Quarles Acquisition