Susser tells GlobeSt.com that SSP Partners plans to build more Tex-Mart stores. SSP Partners operates 215 Circle K convenience stores in Texas and Oklahoma. Currently, the company has eight units in Wichita Falls, TX and 20 in southern Oklahoma. The remainder are on the southern Gulf Coast and the Rio Grande Valley, an area that company is convinced are emerging markets. The strongest markets are in south Texas, which is where Susser plans to make his investment.

Susser says the company plans to build Tex-Mart stores in the large format that they have recently adopted for its Circle K units. FFCA, which has financed SSP's projects since 1998, will do so for these ventures as well. "Over the past four years, FFCA and SSP Partners have developed an ongoing relationship that has resulted in SSP Partners becoming one of our largest and most successful clients," says Stephen G. Shmitz, FFCA executive vice president and CIO.

SSP Partners also is a distributor of motor fuels and supplies fuel to more than 515 convenience stores/gasoline retail outlets, including its company-operated units and 300 dealer locations.