By Frank Daniels IV
Staff Writer
Four Mac’s Food Stores are under new ownership after McNeill Oil & Propane sold the businesses to Majors Management out of Lawrenceville, Ga. McNeill Oil & Propane has operated the combined convenience stores and fuel stations since the 1970s.
The sale includes the locations across the parking lot from Fresh Market in Southern Pines, in Olmsted Village in Pinehurst, and on Sand Pit Road and U.S. 1 at the Town & Country Shopping Center in Aberdeen. McNeill Oil & Propane retains ownership of locations in West End, Raeford and Candor, which are leased to independent business owners.
Davis Clark, vice president of McNeill Oil & Propane, and Frank McNeill Jr., the company’s president, are first cousins as well as partners. That familial bond extends into the workplace culture and their treatment of employees.
“ We’ve been fortunate to have long-term employees who have worked with us,” said Clark. “That is very near and dear to both of us. We felt like this company was going to look after our employees. They gave them the years of service that they had with us. That’s huge.”
Davis said they informed their employees weeks in advance, allowing them to adjust to the idea and formulate any questions they may have had for the new owners.
McNeill and Davis said they may have made that announcement earlier than others in their position, but it’s a reflection of the culture they’ve fostered as a family business. The managers all have a decade or more experience with the company. The longest tenured, Ann Williamson, ran her Mac’s Food location for 27 years.
Discussions with Majors Management began early last summer, and the deal closed on Thursday. Majors plans to keep the stores operating as before, retaining all employees.
“ We strongly believe we want the business the same the day after the closing as it was the day before the closing,” said Hank Heithaus, vice president of strategy for Majors Management.
He said the company likes to rely on the managers in their stores, because they’re the ones who know the customers and how best to serve them.
“Frank and Davis are wonderful guys and built a great family business,” said Heithaus. “We can’t ever fill their shoes. We will try to maintain the same type of customer service that they’ve had and built up over the years. They’ve done a great job.”
McNeill Oil & Propane was founded by W.H. McNeill, who began working in the industry in the early 1920s. He later moved to manage an Aberdeen location for Ed Bert before purchasing the location to start his own company. He and his son, Frank McNeill Sr., saw that company through a series of shifts in the energy industry, from tobacco curing oil and kerosene-based appliances to home heating oil and fuel oil, before the rise of natural gas. Clark and McNeill Jr. said the convenience stores were a product of business evolution that has seen the company transition from tobacco curing oil and kerosene to fuel oil and into the rise of natural gas. Under the leadership of Frank McNeill Sr., the business expanded to serve local service stations in the late ’60s. At one point, they operated seven convenience stores.
“In ’76 we opened our first convenience store down in Raeford at a bayed station,” said McNeill Jr. “We put a canopy out front and a building under it. In ’79 we built one up in Candor, and then just sort of kept growing it.”
Clark said Heithaus initially contacted McNeill Oil & Propane with an interest in purchasing the properties before COVID, but the cousins had no intention of selling at the time.
As third-generation owners, McNeill and Clark said it was a hard decision to sell the stores. Despite many other offers in the ensuing years, the two felt Majors Management was the right choice for their employees.
“They’re a bigger company. They’re probably going to have benefits as good or better than what we could provide, and everybody’s pay was matched. I felt good about that, and that’s one of the things that we wanted to know before we would sign.”
Clark said he’s proud of the relationships they’ve built through the Mac’s Food Stores and the way he served his employees as a sometimes boss, sometimes counselor, that he thinks is “unique to a family business.” And though he said he’ll miss the day-to-day interactions, he knows he’s not going to lose touch with the other business owners, like Michael Davenport of JT Davenport and Sons wholesalers.
McNeill and Clark say they look forward to continuing to see their longtime employees from the other side of the counter, but like tobacco curing oil and kerosene, the convenience stores are a venture best left to larger companies.
”When you spread costs over dozens of stores versus four, it’s just that economy of scale that the bigger companies have an advantage with,” said McNeill. “So we felt like it’s probably a good time to let them run the stores, and we’d concentrate on growing the propane side.”
Selling the Exxon stations attached to the Mac’s Food Stores is part of a larger reduction in the fuel oil distribution. They’ll still serve mostly larger commercial clients, like golf courses, but that allows them to focus on and expand their propane business.
“ It’s one of the few businesses where little Mom and Pops can compete with the big guys because of the service,” said McNeill. “ Propane is propane. You’ve got price, but also service. And we just feel like we give better service than anybody else.”
Contact Frank Daniels IV at (910) 693-2486 or frank@thepilot.com.
