Blarney Castle Oil acquires Alpena Oil’s retail assets in Michigan
The company has now added six full-service grocery stores and 14 traditional convenience stores and a cardlock to its network.
Blarney Castle Oil Co. has acquired Alpena Oil Company’s retail assets, comprising six Louie’s Fresh Market full-service grocery stores and 14 traditional convenience stores and a cardlock.
Blarney Castle is a family-owned company that operates convenience stores in Michigan under the EZ Mart brand. On the other hand, Alpena Oil was founded back in 1849 by Jeremiah Douville, the great-grandfather of the company’s current ownership, in Alpena, Michigan.
The second generation of the Douville family expanded into grocery wholesaling, which remained the primary business until the family acquired its first gas station portfolio in 1996. Jere Johnston, the Company’s President, focused on growing the chain through larger format stores and shortly thereafter opened the first Louie’s Fresh Market in Alanson, Michigan. The original Louie’s Fresh Market paved the way for the five additional large format grocery stores that followed.
Matrix Capital Markets Group provided merger and acquisition advisory services to Alpena Oil, which included valuation advisory, marketing the business through a confidential, structured sale process, and negotiation of the sale.
