EG Group

EG Group Limited[1] is a British retailer headquartered in Blackburn, United Kingdom, which operates filling stations, convenience stores and fast-food restaurants in Europe, the United States and Australia. The group was created through the combination of Euro Garages and EFR Group in November 2016.[5][6]

EG Group Limited
Formerly
  • Optima Finco Limited (2015–2016)
  • Intervias Group Limited (2016–2017)[1]
TypePrivate
IndustryRetail
Founded2001
Founder
Headquarters
Waterside, Lancashire
,
United Kingdom
Area served
  • United Kingdom
  • Germany
  • France
  • Belgium
  • Netherlands
  • Luxembourg
  • Italy
  • United States
  • Australia
  • Republic of Ireland
Key people
Brands
Revenue$26.511 billion (2021)[4]
Number of employees
50,000+ (2021)
ParentOptima Bidco (Jersey) Limited
Divisions
  • EG Shared Services
  • EG Fuel
  • EG Retail
Subsidiaries
  • EG UK & Ireland
  • EG France
  • EG Benelux
  • EG Deutschland
  • EG Italy
  • EG America
  • EG Australia
Websiteeg.group

History

Euro Garages was co founded by brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa in 2001, who expanded the business from a single site (at a cost of £150,000) in Bury, Greater Manchester[7] 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.[8] In October 2015, the private equity firm TDR Capital acquired a stake in the company.[9]

The Dutch-headquartered European Forecourt Retail Group was founded in 2007 as the European energy retail and marketing arm of the Israeli firm Delek, 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%.[10]

EG Group's acquisitions have been largely funded by debt, with a net debt of over £7.3 billion at the end of 2019.[11]

In May 2023, it was announced that Asda had acquired a large part of the UK and Ireland petrol stations operations of EG Group.[12] The Issa brothers already own a majority stake in Asda.[13]

Major acquisitions
Former Loaf 'N Jug now a Kroger's Smith's Express in Gillette, Wyoming[14]

United Kingdom and Ireland

In February 2017, EG Group purchased 78 UK properties from Kout Food Group, this including 70 Little Chef sites (some with attached Burger King and Subway franchises) and 8 standalone Burger King sites.[15] EG Group would then transform the Little Chef sites into its franchise partners (such as Greggs and Starbucks) by October 2018.[16] The group founded EG Diner as a temporary measure in January 2018, when its licence to use the Little Chef name expired, effectively ending the Little Chef brand after almost 60 years.[17]

In early 2020, EG Group announced that they were opening 150 American Bakery outlets under a partnership with Cinnabon by 2025.[18][19]

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.[20]

In October 2020, EG’s owners won a deal to buy the supermarket chain Asda from Walmart for £6.8 billion, bringing it back into British hands after more than 20 years.[21] Questions were raised after its auditor, Deloitte, "suddenly quit" to be replaced by KPMG.[22] However, the group indicated there were no auditing disagreements.[22] This acquisition would mean EG Group would work with Asda to create 'Asda on the Move'.[23]

In May 2021, EG Group bought Leon Restaurants for a reported £100 million.[22]

In October 2021, EG Group bought Cooplands, the UK's second-largest bakery operating mainly in North East England and Yorkshire.[24]

Germany

In November 2017, the business secured approximately 1,000 petrol stations from Esso in Germany, which were transferred and integrated into the existing EG network in October 2018.[25]

In May 2022, EG Group bought 285 petrol stations in Southern Germany from OMV, which were partly supplied by refinery Burghausen. The price was 485 million Euro cash which equals 614 million Euro including pending lease obligations.[26]

United States

On 5 February 2018, EG Group announced that it would purchase nearly eight hundred Kroger convenience stores for $2.15 billion.[27] Later that month, EG Group announced that it had completed the acquisition of circa 1,200 sites in Italy from Esso.[28] 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.[29] In December 2018, EG completed its acquisition of 225 sites of Minit Mart from Travel Centers of America LLC for upwards of US$330m.[30]

In July 2019, EG completed its acquisition of fifty four Fastrac branded sites in the United States,[31] and announced a deal to acquire sixty nine sites operated by Certified Oil, also in the United States.[32] On 31 July 2019, EG Group announced having entered a binding agreement to purchase Cumberland Farms.[33][34][35]

In November 2020, EG Group entered into a binding agreement for the acquisition of 18 locations of Schrader Oil in Fort Collins, Colorado.[36]

Australia
Main article: EG Australia

On 9 November 2018, Australian retailer Woolworths announced to the Australian Securities Exchange it had entered into a binding agreement to sell its 540 fuel convenience sites to EG Group for A$1.72bn.[37]

Potential takeover

An April 2022 report in The Wall Street Journal reported that Circle K parent Alimentation Couche-Tard 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.[38]

Operations

United States
A Turkey Hill Minit Markets location in Columbus, Ohio offering Cumberland Farms branded coffee in 2021

In the United States, EG America has quickly become the fourth largest convenience store chain with its various brands following 7-Eleven's purchase of Speedway with Circle K and Casey's occupying the other spots ahead of EG America.[39] 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 logo that was originally owned by Kroger. All have begun having a shared loyalty program.[40]

Some EG America locations have begun offering franchised food concepts at their locations, such as Subway, Burger King, Sbarro, and Hunt Brothers Pizza, to compete better with chains that have long-established in-house food products, such as Sheetz, Wawa, Rutter's, QuikTrip, Casey's, and Buc-ee's.[41]

References
  1. "EG GROUP LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK". Companies House. 15 October 2015. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
  2. "EG Group Appoints Lord Stuart Rose as Chairman" (PDF) (Press release). EG Group. 21 January 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 September 2022. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  3. "The Board and Group Executive". (Group Leadership tab). EG Group. Archived from the original on 3 October 2022. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  4. "Annual Report 2021" (PDF). EG Group. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 June 2022. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  5. Bounds, Andrew (20 January 2015). "Convenience shopping boosts Euro Garages". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 6 August 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  6. "Euro Garages wins approval for new HQ". Forecourt Trader. Archived from the original on 12 April 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  7. McCall, Alastair; Watts, Robert (7 May 2017). "High-octane rise of brothers' firm shows family value". The Sunday Times. p. 3.
  8. Mustoe, Howard (2 October 2020). "Who are Asda's new owners the Issa brothers?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 3 October 2020. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  9. Begum, Shelina (20 October 2015). "TDR Capital takes a bite into Euro Garages for £1.3bn". Manchester Evening News. Archived from the original on 6 August 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  10. "The 'shy and retiring' Issa brothers' journey from cleaning toilets to billionaire Asda owners building a global empire". Business Live. 31 August 2021. Archived from the original on 23 September 2022. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  11. Brumpton, Harry; Nair, Dinesh; Benitez, Laura (9 January 2020). "U.K. Gas-Station Billionaires Weigh Biggest-Ever Deal in Caltex". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 2 February 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  12. "UK's Asda to buy EG petrol stations unit in $2.9-bln deal". Reuters. 30 May 2023.
  13. "Issa Brothers and TDR Capital Complete the Acquisition of Asda from Walmart". corporate.walmart.com. Archived from the original on 16 February 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  14. Truchot, Jeff (29 March 2018). "Loaf 'N Jug stores changing hands". Wyoming Business Report. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  15. "Questions over Little Chef future as owner sells restaurants". belfasttelegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 29 June 2022. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
  16. Media, Insider. "Little Chef sites sold to Euro Garages". Insider Media Ltd. Archived from the original on 22 April 2022. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  17. Farrell, T. (11 December 2013). "The rise and fall of the Little Chef empire (1958 - 2018)". Let's Look Again. Archived from the original on 28 October 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
  18. "EG Group to Open 150 Cinnabon® Bakeries Across the UK Under New Master Licensee Deal". Euro Garages. 30 November 2020. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  19. Gilbert, Helen (30 November 2020). "Cinnabon to open 150 sites in the UK". British Baker. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  20. "EG Group buys largest KFC franchise operator in UK & Ireland". The Grocer. Archived from the original on 1 March 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  21. Jordan, Dearbail (2 October 2020). "Asda bought by billionaire Issa brothers in £6.8bn deal". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2 October 2020. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  22. "Leon: Billionaire Issa brothers buy fast food chain". BBC News. 18 April 2021. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  23. "Asda opens largest Asda On the Move store". Corporate - ASDA. Archived from the original on 10 September 2022. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
  24. Robinson, Jon; Le, Josie Vay (4 October 2021). "Billionaire Issa brothers buy Britain's second-biggest bakery in multi-million pound deal". Manchester Evening News. Archived from the original on 4 October 2021. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  25. "ExxonMobil and EG Group Enter into New Partnership for German Esso Stations". EG Group. 29 November 2017. Archived from the original on 28 July 2019. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  26. "Verkauf des OMV Tankstellengeschäfts in Deutschland an EG Group abgeschlossen". www.omv.de (in German). Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  27. "Kroger to sell its convenience stores to UK's EG Group for $2.15 billion". CNBC. 5 February 2018. Archived from the original on 6 February 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  28. "EG Group completes on 1,200 Esso sites in Italy - Forecourt Trader". forecourttrader.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  29. "Nieuws | NRGValue". NRGValue (in Dutch). Retrieved 11 May 2018.
  30. Lindenberg, Greg (7 December 2018). "TravelCenters of America Completes Minit Mart Sale". CSP Daily News. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  31. Lindenberg, Greg (2 July 2019). "EG Group Completes Fastrac Acquisition". CSP Daily News. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  32. Lindenberg, Greg (13 May 2019). "EG Group to Acquire Certified Oil Business". CSP Daily News. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  33. "EG Group to acquire Cumberland Farms in the USA". www.eg.group. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  34. "EG Group to Acquire Cumberland Farms". CSP Daily News. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  35. "UK's EG Group Buys Cumberland Farms C-Store Chain". CStore Decisions. 31 July 2019.
  36. Lindenberg, Greg (9 November 2020). "EG Group to Acquire Schrader Oil". CSP Daily News. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
  37. Hatch, Patrick (9 November 2018). "Woolworths offloads servos to British group EG for $1.7 billion". Fairfax Media. The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  38. "Couche-Tard, EG Group in Merger Talks: Report". CSP Daily News. 29 April 2022. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  39. "EG America LLC". CSP Daily News. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  40. "Our brands". Turkey Hill Stores. Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  41. Kulp, Andrew (31 January 2020). "Taking aim at competition, Turkey Hill partners with fast food chains". Reading Eagle. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
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