Premiere Florida C-Store Distributor to Bring Cash-and-Carry Model to Atlantic Seaboard
New York and Tampa, FL – July 13, 2023 – Carl Marks Securities LLC, an affiliate of middle market investment bank Carl Marks Advisors (together “Carl Marks”), today announced that it has successfully guided Colonial Distributing, Inc., a leading distributor supplying convenience stores across Florida, on its merger into National Convenience Distributors, a major East Coast C-store warehouse and distribution network serving customers from Maine to Virginia. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Colonial Distributing, Inc. (“Colonial”) was established in 1998 in Tampa by Yasin Saad, who, alongside his family and partner Samer Dalha, grew it into one of the leading C-Store distributors in Florida and the Southeast. Colonial specializes in drinks, candy, tobacco and vape products, health and beauty, and automotive supplies. In addition to delivering tens of thousands of SKUs to over 5,000 retail locations, Colonial is one of the only distributors in the region offering a wholesale warehouse and “cash and carry” locations where customers can shop the warehouse on the spot to meet their immediate market needs.
National Convenience Distributors (“NCD”), the country’s 4th-largest full-line convenience store distributor, serves 13 states stretching from all of New England through the mid-Atlantic down to Washington, D.C. and Virginia, but had no presence in the Southeast. With this acquisition, NCD enters that valuable market.
“Colonial created a very successful, profitable business model with the combination of direct delivery and cash-and-carry warehouse shopping for its customers,” said Warren H. Feder, Partner at Carl Marks. “Yasin found that when the retailers came to the warehouse, they actually purchased more than their usual delivery. This model, paired with its strong geographic footprint in Florida, made Colonial a very attractive, strategic addition for NCD.”
“Working with the Carl Marks team brought us insights we might not have considered,” said Yasin Saad, principal owner of Colonial Distributing. “Warren’s team showed us how we could increase our sales and provide multiple ways for our customers to do business with us. They also understood that our relationships with our retailers are paramount and that any company we merged into had to align with our culture built on strong customer service.”
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