Black Oil sells C-stores

After providing oil and gas service to southeastern Utah since the 1930s, Black Oil Company has sold its convenience stores.
Effective July 8, 2014, Resort Retailers, a Park City, Utah-based convenience store operating group, assumed control of the five Out West Food and Fuel stores owned by Black Oil.
This includes stores in Monticello, Blanding, Mexican Hat, Moab, and Thompson. In the coming months, all five stores will be rebranded as 7-Eleven convenience stores.
Resort Retailers is a family-based business that has been operating 7-Eleven convenience stores for 26 years. According to President Dan Slaugh, the chain began in 1988 with five stores in the Park City and Heber City area. Over time, the number of stores increased to nine in that area.
In the past two years, they have more than doubled their holdings to 18 stores.
In 2013, they purchased the four convenience stores owned by Walkers in Moab, including stores in Moab, Kanab, Hurricane and Wellington.
The employees at the Out West stores had the opportunity to become Resort Retailer employees.
Slaugh added, “We think everyone is staying on, thank goodness.”
Resort Retailers also purchased the Monticello headquarters of Black Oil Company.
“We have been working on this for ten months,” said Slaugh, “and everything came together just last week.”
Slough said that one of the last pieces to fall into place was the approval of financing through the Small Business Administration (SBA).
As soon as the new stores are rebranded, they will become 7-Eleven and will be open 24 hours a day. They will feature Big Gulps, Slurpees, hotdogs, coffee and more.
Slaugh said that the stores will retain their affiliation with Shell for oil and gas products. Slaugh anticipates that it will take about three months to complete the conversion to 7-Eleven.
Through several generations of the Black family, Black Oil Company has been providing both distribution and retail services in San Juan County for decades.
Kellerstrauss Oil Company purchased the distribution side of the Black Oil business two years ago.