Mexico's huge Oxxo stores' chain crossing border with deal to buy DK stores in Texas, NM

The company that owns thousands of Oxxo convenience stores in Mexico is crossing the border into El Paso and other parts of West Texas and New Mexico.

Fomento Economico Mexico, or Femsa, based in Monterrey, Mexico, has agreed to buy the 249 DK convenience stores from Tennessee-based oil refiner Delek US Holdings for $385 million in cash.

DK conveniences stores operate in West Texas, including 77 in El Paso, Central Texas, New Mexico, and Arkansas.

The deal, announced Aug. 1, is expected to become final before the end of this year.

The pending sale comes only 1½ years after Delek completed renaming its 7-Eleven-branded stores in El Paso to its new DK brand. The stores sell the company’s Alon-branded gasoline.

Delek has owned the conveniences stores for seven years.

It's one of the major convenience store operators in El Paso, along with Circle K, owned by Canadian company Alimentation Couche-Tard, and Speedway, owned by 7-Eleven Inc., based in the Dallas area.

Delek officials said in a statement that they expect to make a future deal with Femsa to continue supplying gasoline to the stores. The El Paso stores currently get gasoline from Delek’s oil refinery in Big Spring, Texas.

Femsa has long wanted to enter the United States convenience store market “and this transaction represents the ideal way for us to take our first step in this compelling market,” Jose Antonio Fernandez Garza-Laguera, chief executive officer of Femsa’s retail operations, said in a statement.

Oxxo had 22,658 stores in Mexico, including in Juárez, and 1,022 stores in South America, at the end of June, according to its latest financial report.

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Femsa officials in February 2023 announced a long-range plan to focus on its three core businesses: retail stores, Coca-Cola products' bottling in Mexico and eight other Latin American countries, and digital platforms, anchored by its Spin by Oxxo electronic transactions system and credit card.

As part of the new plan, Femsa in May 2023 sold its major stake in Heineken, the giant beer brewer.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com ; @vickolenc on Twitter , now known as X.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Mexico's huge Oxxo stores' chain crossing border with deal to buy DK stores in Texas, NM