Major Brand Fuel Station & C-Store, 28-Year Corona CA Dealer

$1.8M

Revenue

$500K

SDE

5.0x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a branded fuel station with an attached 1,800 square foot convenience store located at a busy freeway exit in Corona, California, surrounded by retail and office density. The site runs 24/7 with 12 multi-product dispensers across two islands plus four diesel dispensers, moving roughly 100,000 gallons per month at an 84 cent per gallon margin. The store layer adds about $99,000 per month in merchandise sales, $29,000 per month in lottery sales, and $3,000 per month in ancillary income from ATM, rebates, and rewards.

The structural catch here is that this is a business-only sale with a leased footprint. The land is owned by a real estate investment company and is not for sale, the land improvements are owned by the major oil company, and the operator holds a dealer lease under the oil company master lease. The dealer currently pays roughly $23,300 per month covering lease, property taxes, and maintenance, with renewals every three years under the federal PMPA framework.

At a $2.5M ask against approximately $500,000 in annual cash flow, this is a 5x multiple on a single-site fuel-and-C-store operation that the family has run since 1996. The business carries an ABC general (21) liquor license, which is a meaningful add to the merchandise economics, but a buyer is fundamentally buying a leasehold business with a finite master lease runway.

Why we like it

Fuel and convenience is genuinely recession-resistant demand: people buy gas, drinks, snacks, lottery, and beer in good times and bad. At roughly 100,000 gallons per month plus $99,000 in merchandise and $29,000 in lottery, the revenue base is diversified across fuel margin and higher-margin in-store items.
The location is the moat. A busy freeway exit surrounded by retail and offices drives captive, habitual traffic, and a branded major-oil site at a hard corner is difficult to replicate. The ABC general (21) license adds beer and liquor sales that lift store margins above a vanilla C-store.
This is a boring, cash-generative operation with a 28-year family ownership track record since 1996. Stable multi-decade operation at a single site signals durable local demand and a proven unit model rather than a startup gamble.
The operator advantage here is in-store execution: merchandise mix, hours coverage, shrink control, and fuel pricing discipline. A hands-on owner who tightens labor (currently about $23,000 per month payroll and tax) and optimizes the store assortment can move cash flow meaningfully.

How to improve it

Audit and re-merchandise the 1,800 square foot store to raise basket size and gross margin. Expand high-margin categories like beverages, prepared food, and leveraging the ABC (21) license for beer and wine displays, since in-store margin compounds faster than fuel.
Scrutinize the $23,000 monthly payroll for a 24/7 single site. Build tighter shift scheduling around real traffic patterns and reduce overlap during slow overnight hours to protect coverage while trimming labor cost.
Negotiate fuel supply and pricing dynamics with the oil company to protect and grow the 84 cent per gallon margin. Even a one or two cent improvement across 100,000 gallons per month flows straight to cash flow.
Add or upgrade ancillary profit centers: a car wash if the 0.54 acre lot and lease permit it, additional ATM placement, propane exchange, or packaged food. These are low-capital adds that lift the $3,000 per month other income line.
Implement loyalty and card-based promotions to convert fuel-only visitors into store buyers. The highest-value move at any fuel site is pulling pump traffic inside, where margins are several times richer.
Lock down lottery and age-restricted compliance tightly, since lottery is $29,000 per month and the ABC license is a core asset. A single compliance lapse can threaten licenses that underpin the earnings.

Diligence notes

The entire deal lives or dies on the lease. The oil company master lease with the land owner expires in 10.5 years, and the dealer lease renews every three years under PMPA. Confirm renewal history, assignability to a buyer, rent escalation terms, and what happens at master lease expiry, because paying 5x for cash flow on a finite leasehold is very different from owning the dirt.
Verify the $500,000 annual cash flow against actual tax returns, fuel purchase statements, POS reports, and lottery commission statements. The listing explicitly says data is from reliable sources but not guaranteed, so demand bank deposits and merchant processing records for 24 to 36 months.
Confirm the all-in monthly obligation to the oil company. The $23,300 per month covers lease, property taxes, and maintenance, so understand how taxes and maintenance can escalate and whether major UST or dispenser repairs fall on the dealer.
Inspect the environmental and UST condition. There are three underground storage tanks, and environmental liability on fuel sites can be catastrophic. Order a Phase I environmental assessment and confirm tank age, compliance testing, and who bears remediation responsibility under the lease.
Validate the ABC general (21) license transferability and standing, since beer and liquor sales materially support store margins. Confirm there are no violations, suspensions, or pending actions that could jeopardize the license on transfer.
Pressure-test fuel volume and margin durability given the finite lease. A buyer should model downside where the master lease is not renewed at year 10.5, and understand there may be little or no terminal value in the business beyond that window.

Source

Originally listed on BizBen. View original listing →