Shell doubles down on c-stores as Sunoco expands and BP trims

Shell’s announced acquisition of Tri Star Energy’s 320 locations will push the company’s U.S. company-owned c-store footprint to more than 500 sites, effectively doubling the network.

Shell announced the transaction in September. The agreement adds more than 300 stores under the Twice Daily, Sudden Service and Little General banners, along with a company renowned for foodservice. It also brings the White Bison coffee-shop chain, which operates inside Twice Daily stores.

Shell previously held a 33% stake in Tri Star and plans to acquire the rest. The move reverses its exit from c-store ownership nearly 20 years ago. Retail, apparently, remains difficult to exile.

What does the c-store reset change for suppliers and operators?

For suppliers and c-store operators, the reset changes the map of corporate retail ownership: Shell and Sunoco add stores; BP reduces its base. Their attraction is practical: supply contracts, foodservice capability and additional income. For all three, declining trips and profitability pressure complicate the arithmetic.

Shell

Shell returned to U.S. c-store ownership in 2021, when it acquired nearly 250 stores from Landmark Industries, after more than a decade without any. The Tri Star agreement now adds scale and a foodservice platform. Outside the U.S., Shell sold around 800 underperforming locations in countries including Indonesia and Mexico last year to boost free cash flow.

Sunoco

Sunoco looked poised to leave c-store retailing in early 2024. In mid-2025, it spent $9.1 billion to acquire Parkland, gaining significant fueling assets and several hundred U.S. convenience stores. Questions followed over whether Sunoco would keep those locations.

About a year later, Sunoco appears to have kept the stores and expanded. During the first few months of 2026, the company made three acquisitions that added nearly 150 stores.

In August, President and CEO Joe Kim said Sunoco was “on track to exceed its target of $500 million in bolt-on acquisitions this year.” He added that “strong returns during the first half of the year have freed up more capital for M&A.”

Kim did not say how, or whether, retail will factor into those plans. The answer leaves Sunoco’s retail role undefined. That is not a small gap.

BP

BP has not made a major c-store acquisition in the past two years. The company stopped running retail stores in the early 2000s, then significantly rebuilt its footprint with the 2021 acquisition of Thorntons and the 2023 purchase of TravelCenters of America.

Between 2019 and 2023, BP increased its global c-store sites by 70%. Those deals show that BP still values company-owned retail, even as it now reduces that base.

Growth across convenience retail and BP’s wider business brought higher costs. BP is now slashing those expenses, restructuring the company and carrying out corporate layoffs. Last year, the company said it would sell 10% of its global company-operated c-store locations.

The disposals now include hundreds of locations. BP plans to sell its 250-store Austrian business and has sold 13 Thorntons sites to Giant Oil. Earlier this year, BP moved management of its c-store operations into a new division, and two key retail executives left.

In August, newly appointed CEO Meg O’Neill indicated that BP wants to make financial improvements to TravelCenters of America. BP has not outlined specific plans for its c-store business. Its portfolio moves point instead to further contraction in U.S. retail before a return to growth.

Going forward, Shell must integrate 320 stores while Sunoco decides how much of its acquisition firepower reaches retail and BP works to revive TravelCenters of America. Ownership is once again a growth tool. Traffic has yet to cooperate.