Quarles Petroleum has closed on the sale of its propane and refined products distribution business to Superior Plus Energy Services, a subsidiary of Superior Plus. The assets in the sale included the company’s delivered fuel business that supplies propane and refined fuels to residential and commercial customers in Virginia and West Virginia from its large network of bulk plants and customer service centers. The sale to Superior did not include Quarles’ fleet fueling and cardlock assets, the wholesale dealer business or the lubricants business.
Quarles was founded in 1940 by Douglas Quarles Sr. and his son, Douglas Quarles Jr., by purchasing The Home Oil Co. in Warrenton, Va. Over the next 40 years, the company expanded into new regions in Virginia and acquired a storage terminal in Spotsylvania County, Va., providing a connection to the Plantation Pipeline. In the 1980s, Quarles began opening cardlock fueling locations and convenience stores, and the company also entered the propane business. In the two decades that followed, the company opened a total of 31 Q-Stop convenience stores before selling them to 7-Eleven in 2010 to focus on the delivered fuels and fleet fueling businesses. Under the leadership of the current management team, Quarles has grown significantly over the last 10 years through the continued development of its cardlock network and fleet fueling program, as well as several acquisitions of propane & refined products distribution companies, including Whiting Oil Co., Northern Neck Oil Co., Northern Neck Gas, Revere Gas Co., the propane assets of PAPCO, Inc. and Dixie Gas & Oil.
Matrix Capital Markets Group provided advisory services to Quarles.
“The Matrix team was instrumental in identifying Superior as a good match to acquire our delivered fuels business. They guided us through the entire process from marketing our business to buyers to managing through the closing process,” said Paul Giambra, CEO of Quarles Petroleum. “We’re pleased to transition our delivered fuels business to a company that shares our values of providing a high level of customer service and values the contributions of our associates to the success of our business.”
Today, Quarles is one of the largest propane and refined fuels distribution companies in the U.S. and serves over 80,000 residential and commercial customers in Virginia; West Virginia; Washington, D.C.; Maryland; Pennsylvania; and North Carolina through a network of over 30 bulk plants, over 120 Quarles branded cardlocks and over 60 private cardlock sites.
