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- The network is Road Ranger, with 38 travel centers along the main highways in the Midwest of the country, with presence in Texas, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri and Wisconsin.
- Entry to the USA marks the beginning of Enex’s internationalization, after its consolidation in Chile as a relevant actor in the domestic market of fuel distribution and convenience stores.
Santiago, August 24, 2018. Quiñenco’s subsidiary, Enex, signed the agreements to purchase Road Ranger, the fourth largest network of highway travel centers in the USA for an amount of US$289 million. The acquisition should materialize within the next few months, once all the agreed conditions precedent are met and the authorizations required by that country are granted. The transaction will be financed with its own funds and bank financing.
Road Ranger has 38 travel centers located along the main interstate highways between Texas and the Midwest, including Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri and Wisconsin, which is one of the corridors with the greatest flow of cargo in the USA. These centers are a structural part of the country’s transportion and logistics’ network, since in addition to fuel supply, they offer a wide variety of services for car and truck drivers.
The wide range of services available across the network include Road Ranger’s convenience stores, fast food franchises such as Subway, Church´s, Chester´s, Cinabbon, Dickie’s Barbecue Pit, McDonald´s and Burger King, in addition to restrooms and showers, video gaming terminals, and truck scales, among others.
Together with announcing the acquisition, Enex’s CEO, Nicolás Correa, commented: “we are happy that Enex will launch its internationalization in such a challenging market like the US. It represents a significant opportunity to continue increasing our retail offer, in a market where 60% of margins are originated by supplementary services, and 40% by fuel”.
“Road Ranger has a significant growth potential in number of stores, as well as in the consolidation of its current network of travel centers, located across two of the three states with the highest concentration of cargo traffic in the USA. As a result, we will be in a good position to capitalize the strong growth trend in the demand for this type of transport in that country, which increased 6.7% during the last year”, explained Nicolás Correa.
Established in 2011 as a licensee of Shell in Chile, Enex –a subsidiary of Quiñenco S.A.- has consolidated as one of the main players in the fuel distribution industry at a domestic level, with a 22.6% market share. During the last five years it has established a network of 454 service stations and has developed a new concept in convenience stores through the upa! brand. In addition, it participates in other business areas, such as the sale of industrial fuels, distribution of Shell lubricants, asphalt and chemicals.
Regarding the Road Ranger acquisition, Quiñenco’s CEO and Chairman of Enex, Francisco Pérez Mackenna, explained that “this transaction not only represents a significant step in Enex’s development, but it is also consistent with the internationalization strategy that Quiñenco has been driving during the last few years. We define ourselves as an entrepreneurial group open to the world to discover new horizons, contributing to the progress of all the countries where we have operations. We are proud of Enex’s entrance to the US market, where the economy shows signs of accelerated growth”.