RICHARD ONESLAGER, PRESIDENT of
Firsthand Management LLC, the retail operating
arm of Balmar Petroleum, a petroleum fuels
distributing company headquartered in
Centennial, Colo., has finalized a deal with
7-Eleven Inc. making him a 7-Eleven Business
Conversion Program (BCP) franchisee for his
stores in Northern Colorado. The 10 stores that
will be franchised with 7-Eleven will continue
to offer Shell- and Conoco-branded gasoline,
which is currently sold at these locations and
provided by Balmar. Firsthand Management
is among initial companies in the country to
participate in 7-Eleven’s Business Conversion
Program and is the largest multi-site store
conversion under this arrangement to date.

“With rising prices and credit card fees, and
gas margins continuing to erode, we see
the store offer as increasingly important,”
Oneslager said. “This is a tremendous
opportunity for us to increase merchandise
sales and margins inside our stores with
7-Eleven’s proprietary systems, signature
products and ability to leverage cost of goods.
We believe this a sound back-court solution
for independent retailers in the fuel and
convenience retailing business.”

As part of the BCP agreement, 7-Eleven will
invest to upgrade the 10 Firsthand stores, provide
new equipment, its sophisticated retail
information system, business counseling and
support. In addition, these stores become part
of 7-Eleven’s infrastructure and will benefit
from the daily delivery of fresh foods and other
time-sensitive products, its proprietary supply
chain system and technology.