KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Pilot Corporation announced Tuesday it is selling its remaining smaller convenience stores to the Midwest chain Casey's General Stores.
The $220 million deal included Pilot's 38 small-scale convenience stores in East Tennessee and two travel centers in Nashville and Middlesboro, Kentucky. It will not include any of the company's Knoxville-area travel centers.
Pilot CEO Jimmy Haslam said the company got into the convenience store business as its main vehicle for growth throughout the late 1970s and 80s, but as time went on the company invested more heavily into building larger travel centers. He said the smaller convenience stores became a less important part of the company between its travel centers and the recent launch of the One9 Fuel Network, saying the company hadn't opened a new one in at least a decade.
"It will be really hard to drive by those locations with somebody else's sign up," Haslam said. "But I think our customers over the years will be very well serviced by the Casey's team."
Haslam said the sale of its East Tennessee convenience stores will not change its commitment to conducting business in the Knoxville area.
"Pilot will always be based in Knoxville. Our family has been very committed to this area for a long time," he said.
Haslam said people employed at the sold stores will join Casey's.
Founded more than half a century ago, Casey's is now the third-largest convenience store retailer and fifth-largest pizza chain in the U.S. The company operates more than 2,300 convenience stores across the U.S.