LV Petroleum targets 140 travel centers by end of 2027 after acquisition spree
LV Petroleum wants 140 travel centers up and running by the end of 2027, and the retailer is leaning on the gas after a year of acquisitions and a reshuffled leadership bench, per C-Store Dive. For jobbers watching consolidation at the high-volume end of the forecourt, that pace matters. Travel centers move serious diesel gallons, and a buyer adding sites that fast is pulling supply contracts and fuel-brand decisions along with it.
The acquisition route is the tell here. Buying your way to 140 beats building from dirt on both speed and permitting, and it means LV is absorbing existing supply agreements and loyalty setups rather than writing clean ones. Leadership changes on top of that usually signal a new playbook on margin and format.
Meijer tops the rankings
Meijer beat out Buc-ee's and Sheetz for the top spot in a 2026 national convenience store survey, according to Crain's Grand Rapids Business and the Detroit Free Press. A Midwest supercenter operator landing above the names people think of as the c-store gold standard says something about how buyers are scoring these stores now.
Buc-ee's built its reputation on scale and clean restrooms, Sheetz on made-to-order food. Meijer sliding past both suggests the survey weighted the full basket, fuel plus grocery plus prepared food. A bigger box scores well on that measure. Operators who benchmark against Buc-ee's might want to check what Meijer is doing on the forecourt and the deli counter.
Foodservice openings
Acosta Group Research flagged new c-store foodservice opportunities, per Convenience Store News. That lines up with the Meijer result. Fuel margins stay volatile and thin in stretches, so the inside sale, and prepared food in particular, is where a lot of operators are trying to make the economics work.
The research naming specific openings is more useful than another "food is growing" headline. If Acosta is pointing to gaps in dayparts or menu categories, that is a roadmap for operators deciding where to spend remodel dollars.
What to watch
Watch where LV Petroleum buys next and which fuel brands those sites carry, because a run toward 140 reshapes supply relationships across whatever regions it targets. Watch whether the Meijer ranking pushes dedicated c-store chains to rethink how they measure against the big-box players, or whether they treat it as a one-off. And watch for the Acosta detail: if operators can see which foodservice categories the research calls out, that tells them where to put capital while pump margins stay unpredictable. The through-line in all three is the same bet, that the money is increasingly inside the store, and the fuel gets you in the door.