BreakTime acquires 23 Loaf 'N Jug stores in North Dakota, Montana

GRAND FORKS — EG America is selling 23 Loaf ‘N Jug stores to BreakTime Corner Market in North Dakota and Montana.

By mid-June, two Loaf ‘N Jug locations in Grand Forks should be under the ownership of BTCM. The company will become owner of all the locations in North Dakota (14) and the nine locations in Montana.

Bret Sullivan, BTCM regional operations director, will return to the area soon during the ownership transition. Sullivan and a co-worker spent a week in North Dakota and Montana a few months ago visiting all the stores the company is purchasing.

They visited all 23 stores in five days.

“We came in and started on a Monday. We drove like crazy, and got to all 23 by Friday night. We were hurrying. We had some late nights, but we got through them all.”

Sullivan plans to spend two weeks visiting the stores again at the end of May and into June.

That’s when customers will start to see a different sign on the buildings and maybe other cosmetic changes at the stores. There won’t be a lot of changes inside the store.

Expanding products will be one of them.

“Loaf ‘N Jug is kind of restrictive at the store level because they want their stores to be the exact same,” Sullivan said. “We don’t operate that way, so you get a little more variety of what we sell.”

Plans are to find a product or two that is made in the city or the county of the new stores and sell it at BreakTime. That’s an additional way for the company to have a tie with the community.

Sullivan said the company has been expanding through acquisitions.

With stores in Kansas and Colorado, BTCM believes the move northward to North Dakota and Montana was a natural progression for the company.

“They’re older stores, but they are in pretty good shape,” Sullivan said. “That’s kind of the niche we’ve been working in the last few years.

“Everybody is excited to see more territory. I just came from western Texas and western Kansas. It’s a whole different look when you get up to Montana and North Dakota.”

Some workers at Loaf ‘N Jug thought BTCM was going to take over in early May, but the transition was delayed. Sullivan said he was unsure of the purchase price for the 23 stores.

This isn’t BTCM’s largest acquisition. Just a couple of years ago, it acquired 48 stores in Texas.

The Houston-based company bought its first convenience store in Houston in 1999. The company now operates numerous gas stations/convenience stores.

Established in 2004, BTCM has emerged as a multifaceted enterprise, specializing in the operation and management of gas stations/convenience stores, retail shopping centers, office buildings and the acquisition of land for retail development.

Sullivan said he’s looking forward to learning about the employees in the new stores. He said there will be no layoffs.

“Everybody is staying on board,” he said. “We want to maintain consistency. People get comfortable. They don’t like changes in their convenience stores.”

Store managers will be given more latitude in what they can do at the stores, Sullivan said.

“We’re excited to see our company grow a little larger and see some new territory and move on, move forward,” Sullivan said.

Kevin Fee is a freelance reporter for the Herald.