High-Volume Sinclair Gas Station & Food Mart, Elko Nevada

$2.3M

Revenue

$650K

SDE

4.3x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a branded Sinclair gas station and 3,500 square foot food mart in Elko, Nevada, operating since 1983 in a busy neighborhood the seller describes as having very little competition. The store does roughly $135,000 a month in inside sales at over 33% margin, pumps about 25,000 gallons of fuel at margins over 45 cents per gallon, and carries a full hard liquor license. On top of that, the business collects $1,500 a month in gaming machine rental income, a common Nevada wrinkle that adds high-margin passive cash flow with none of the operating headache.

The numbers pencil to $2,310,412 in revenue, $650,000 in SDE, and $335,000 in EBITDA. The asking price is $2,800,000 plus $200,000 of inventory, and importantly the $1,750,000 of real estate is NOT included in that asking price, so a buyer should treat this as an operating business plus a separate real estate decision. The station comes with upgraded pumps, is SBA-approved with 20-25% down, and includes a nonfunctional car wash that the seller pitches as convertible into a pizza or fast food restaurant.

Gas stations with strong fuel volume, high-margin inside sales, liquor, and gaming income in a low-competition rural market are exactly the kind of boring, cash-generating asset that holds up through cycles. The Elko location matters here: it is a mining and highway hub in northeast Nevada with steady traffic, which supports both fuel throughput and convenience spend.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is diversified across three streams: fuel at 45 cents-plus per gallon, inside sales at 33% margin doing about $1.6M a year, and $18,000 annual gaming rent. That mix, plus a full hard liquor license, gives the $650,000 SDE more durability than a fuel-only station where a single margin compresses everything.
The moat is location and scarcity. The seller emphasizes very little competition in a busy Elko neighborhood, and in a rural highway and mining town like Elko, a well-positioned branded station with a large lot is genuinely hard to replicate given permitting, fuel supply agreements, and liquor licensing.
Convenience and fuel are textbook recession-resistant. People buy gas, cigarettes, drinks, and lottery in good times and bad, and the Nevada gaming rent is a fixed check that does not care about the economy. This is the kind of demand floor you want when you are levering up with SBA debt.
The operator advantage is real and cheap: a nonfunctional car wash and empty lot capacity give a hands-on owner an immediate expansion lane. Adding a pizza or quick-service concept, or reviving the car wash, converts idle square footage into new margin without buying more land.

How to improve it

Reactivate or repurpose the dead car wash in the first 90 days. Get a quote to restore the tunnel versus convert the space to food service, then run the math on incremental cash flow per dollar of capex before committing, since a working car wash in a mining town is high-margin recurring revenue.
Add a branded quick-service food program. A pizza slice counter, roller grill expansion, or a franchised sandwich concept in the 3,500 square foot store can lift basket size and margin dramatically, and food attach is one of the highest-return moves in convenience retail.
Audit and optimize inside-store category management. At 33% blended margin there is likely room to raise it toward high-30s by tightening pricing on tobacco, beer, and packaged beverages, cutting slow SKUs, and negotiating better rebates from distributors on your top movers.
Push the fuel and loyalty side. Implement a simple loyalty or app-based fuel discount to drive repeat visits and inside conversion, and review the Sinclair supply contract terms to confirm you are capturing available brand incentives and credit card fee programs.
Add or expand gaming and lottery footprint. The $1,500 monthly gaming rent suggests limited machines; explore adding restricted gaming positions where Nevada licensing allows, since incremental machines are near-pure-margin rent with no labor.
Extend and staff for full 24-hour operation if not already running it. In a highway and mining market, overnight fuel and convenience traffic can be meaningful, and the labor cost is often more than covered by graveyard fuel and tobacco sales.
Separate the real estate decision explicitly. Since the $1.75M building is not in the asking price, model both buying it (owning the dirt, no rent risk, refinance optionality) versus a lease, and structure the SBA package so the operating multiple stays defensible.

Diligence notes

Verify the SDE build and margin claims against three years of tax returns, fuel invoices, and POS reports. The monthly numbers are described in ranges ($135,000-ish inside sales, over 45 cents fuel margin), so confirm the actual blended margins net of credit card fees, shrink, and spoilage before trusting the $650,000.
Clarify the real estate structure completely. The building is valued at $1,750,000 and explicitly not included in the $2.8M asking, so understand whether you must also buy it, lease it, and from whom, because that changes total capital required and the true multiple substantially.
Confirm the environmental status of the underground storage tanks. This is the single biggest hidden liability at any gas station; pull tank age, inspection records, leak detection compliance, and any prior remediation, and budget for a Phase I and tank tightness testing.
Validate the liquor, gaming, and Sinclair brand agreements are transferable. Confirm the hard liquor license transfers cleanly, the gaming machine lease and $1,500 rent continue post-sale, and the fuel supply and branding contract terms, minimum volume commitments, and remaining term.
Reconcile the reason for selling. The listing says both that owners want to retire and that the seller is moving into another business, so pin down the real motivation and confirm there is no local competitor, road project, or mine slowdown that threatens future volume.
Assess the Elko economic dependence. A meaningful share of traffic likely ties to mining employment and highway flow, so stress-test what happens to fuel and inside sales if a major regional employer contracts, and check for any planned road or bypass changes.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →