Dive Brief:
- Arko has taken its wholesale fuel distribution business public in an IPO that raised around $200 million, the company announced this week.
- Arie Kotler, Arko’s president, chairman and CEO, rang the opening bell on Thursday at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York City to commence the IPO for Arko Petroleum Corp., which now operates separately from Arko’s c-store business, GPM Investments.
- The IPO, which Kotler and his team revealed was in the works late last year, clears the way for Arko to potentially ramp up its transformation plan that includes converting select company-operated c-stores to its wholesale segment to reduce expenses.
Dive Insight:
Now operating as its own entity, Arko Petroleum’s business includes Arko’s wholesale business, which supplies fuel to third-party dealers and consignment agents; its fleet fueling arm, which operates proprietary cardlock locations, manages third-party fueling sites and markets fuel cards; and its GPM Petroleum business, which supplies fuel directly to GPM Investments’ retail and wholesale sites.
During the Nasdaq bell ringing ceremony on Thursday, Kotler said Arko Petroleum distributed 2 billion gallons of fuel across more than 30 states last year. He added that stability resulting from the company’s long-term, fixed-fee fuel contracts is what sets it apart from competitors.
“We enter this market today with a strong balance sheet and financial flexibility to lead to the consolidation of a fragmented industry,” Kotler said.
Despite the business shift, there’s no indication that Arko intends to slow the growth of GPM Investments, which has about 1,200 company-operated c-stores in its network. Recent investments in that division have included the rollout of Arko’s food-focused store design and the new Fas Craves foodservice program.
Arko’s store conversion strategy — also known internally as its dealerization program — has made significant progress since becoming one of the company’s priorities. Through September of last year, Arko had converted 347 sites and it said it expects to continue that process in 2026.
