Another longtime Modesto brand sells. But rest of the Valley-based company isn’t going anywhere
Another longtime Central Valley-born brand has been sold. But this time the sale is only a small part of its parent business.
Boyett Petroleum, a Modesto presence in the fuel business since 1940, has sold its Cruisers convenience stores to a Southern California company. The sale was part of a deal that included Boyett purchasing 200 distribution stations from United Pacific, a Long Beach-based company known for running the Rocket brand of gas-station retail stores.
The 10 Cruisers stations operated by Boyett, which range from Modesto to Manteca and as far away as Arnold, all are being converted into Rocket stations. Customers already have began noticing the new name on their gas station receipts, and new signs should be going up soon. Rocket has some 500 stores across the Western United States, with most in Southern California.
Third-generation Boyett Petroleum owner and CEO Dale Boyett said the sale will help expand the company’s much larger fuel distribution business, which has been and continues to be the core of its company. The independent wholesale supplier, whose headquarters are on McHenry Avenue, now delivers its wholesale gas to some 700 to 800 stations from California to Oklahoma.
The decision to sell their Cruisers stores and acquire more distribution sites made sense for both companies, Boyett said.
“It feels a little weird to not have these stores anymore,” Boyett said in a phone interview about the sales this week. “But it was the right thing to do. Our wholesale business has been growing for a long time. Our retail has, too, but not as fast.”
Deals swap gas station stores for distribution sites
He said United Pacific specializes in operating its Rocket convenience stores and can get more competitive prices on merchandise and inventory. With both businesses playing to their strengths, he said, Valley customers should benefit.
“Ultimately, this is a Class-A organization that has bought (Cruisers). They’re still the best corners and still the best sites,” he said. “They certainly didn’t buy (the stores) to run them into the ground.”
The acquisitions came with swapping of employees, too. The about 100 retail employees working at the Cruisers sites all were offered jobs with Rocket, with the vast majority transferring. Boyett in turn has acquired eight employees from United Pacific. The corporate staff working on the Modesto company’s retail side have been retained and reassigned as well, Boyett said.
Boyett Petroleum now has about 110 employees. The Modesto company also is keeping its Cruise Americard fleet business, which allows employees from other businesses to fuel up at its stations. The company still has about 70 gas-only sites, including the high-profile corner at Ninth and D streets in downtown Modesto. Boyett said they have about 1,500 of the fleet business-to-business accounts, working with private companies and municipalities across the region.
The namesake Modesto company was started by Stan and Carol Boyett, Dale Boyett’s grandparents, in 1940. They opened their first gas stations in the region in 1948. They were succeeded by their son Carl Boyett, who passed away in 2015 at age 70. The Cruisers brand was launched in 2007.
Since last year, a handful of longtime Central Valley-based brands have been sold after decades of family ownership. Modesto-born Save Mart Supermarkets was acquired by Los Angeles-based private equity firm in March 2022, ending 70 years of family ownership. That was followed in June that same year by the sale of Livingston-based poultry processing giant Foster Farms to Connecticut holding company, which ended 83 years of family ownership.
