'A Canadian gem': Why Parkland bought M&M Food Market

For $322 million, Parkland Corporation is buying M&M Food Market to improve one aspect of its business that the company itself admits is not currently very good.

For $322 million, Parkland Corporation is buying M&M Food Market to improve one aspect of its business that the company itself admits is not currently very good.

“This helps address a gap in our portfolio where we currently don’t have a very good frozen [food] offer or a fresh-from-frozen offer,” said Bob Espey, CEO of the Calgary-based gas station and convenience store operator, in an interview Wednesday.

Buying M&M, he said, “allows us to build that.”

Founded in 1980 with a single location in Kitchener, Ont., M&M has since expanded across the country with roughly 300 standalone company- and franchise-owned stores and about 2,000 so-called “express” locations consisting of dedicated freezers inside other retailers. Parkland’s On The Run chain already hosts 100 M&M Express locations and Espey said that total should rise to all 400 of the company’s stores nationwide within the “next couple of years.”

Circle K, which is owned by Montreal-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. — a key Parkland rival — also hosts several M&M Express locations, as does pharmacy chain Rexall. Espey said Parkland will maintain those relationships, though he added “one of the advantages” of buying M&M was so his company “can start to develop some of our own proprietary offers that would only be available at our sites.”

Unique offerings, according to retail industry analyst Bruce Winder, is what has allowed M&M to “survive pretty well for decades with these mammoth grocery chains breathing down their neck.”