Large Chains

Fairfield, Calif. -- A Fuddruckers franchisee has acquired a 14,500-sq.-ft. property on the ring road of Solano Mall in Fairfield, Calif., according to Transwestern, the brokerage that represented the franchisee.

A Chick-fil-A restaurant attached to the property will continue to operate without change.

Winston-Salem, N.C. – Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation has entered into a letter of intent with an affiliate of Sun Holdings, LLC for the sale of three company-owned shops in Dallas, and for Sun Holdings' further development of the Dallas market. The sale of the stores is subject to conditions, including the execution of a definitive asset purchase agreement and a development agreement pursuant to which Sun Holdings would undertake the further development of new Krispy Kreme shops in Dallas.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Dollar Tree has promoted Gary Philbin to president and COO. He has served as COO since 2007. Bob Sasser continues to lead the company as its CEO.

Corpus Christie, Texas -- Susser Holdings Corporation announced that its Striples LLL brand has Sid Keswani as senior VP store operations. Keswani brings to Stripes more than 18 years of retail operations experience with Target, most recently as senior VP for the Southeast region of the United States.

Stripes announced that company veteran Richard Sebastian has taken on the role of senior VP of facilities, construction and will be responsible for the company's maintenance, new store and capital expenditure programs.   

Boulder, Col. -- QuikTrip is the nation’s most popular convenience store, according to a new study by Market Force Information. QuikTrip was voted the most popular c-store chain among the more than 7,600 study participants, followed by Wawa, RaceTrac, Speedway and Arco/ampm.

Boca Raton, Fla. -- Office Depot has reached an agreement to sell its 50% stake in Office Depot de Mexico S.A. de C.V. to its joint venture partner Grupo Gigante, S.A.B. de C.V. for roughly $690 million in cash.

Office Depot de Mexico, which was founded in 1994 as a joint partnership between Office Depot and Grupo Gigante, has more than 248 stores throughout Mexico and Central America and more than $1.1 billion in annual sales.

Tokyo -- A Sunday report by Bloomberg said that 7-Eleven parent Seven & I Holdings Co. is planning more acquisitions here and may more than double the number of c-store stores it operates in North America.

The company “could increase our store number to 20,000 or even 30,000 [in North America],” chairman Toshifumi Suzuki told Bloomberg in an interview.  7-Eleven currently has more than 8,000 convenience stores in North America.

No time-frame for the planned expansion has been defined.

CINCINNATI — Kroger has announced the retirement of Quintin Frey, president of Turkey Hill Dairy. Frey began his career with Kroger at Turkey Hill Dairy in 1980 as a management trainee. He served in a variety of leadership roles before being promoted to serve as president in 1991.

"Quintin has been a great ambassador for the Turkey Hill brand and an important part of the Kroger leadership team," said Kroger chairman and CEO David B. Dillon. "The Kroger family extends our thanks and best wishes to Quintin and his family."

CARY, N.C. — The Pantry, an independently operated convenience store chain in the southeastern United States, has appointed former Big Lots executive Boris Zelmanovich as the company’s SVP and CMO. 

Zelmanovich will join the Pantry’s executive leadership team Monday, June 3, and will lead merchandising. He served as VP of merchandising strategy at Big Lots, where he was responsible for the development of strategic merchandising plans and repositioning the merchandising portfolio to drive market differentiation.

SEATTLE — Starbucks subsidiary Seattle’s Best Coffee opened 10 new drive-through windows at restaurants throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Items available for drive-through purchase include 12 combo specials priced $5 or less.