Swifty Serve Asks Court to OK Sale of 547 Stores

ATLANTA-Swifty Serve, a five-year-old, privately owned gasoline and convenience store chain, first under Chapter 11 protection and now in Chapter 7 (liquidation), has asked a US Bankruptcy Court judge for permission to shed most of its assets. The real estate held by the troubled chain totals 547 convenience stores and an estimated 6.56 million sf throughout the Southeast.

Judge Catherine Carruthers is scheduled to make her ruling Jan. 7. Swifty Serve’s October Chapter 11 petition listed assets of about $75 million and liabilities of $125 million. The chain’s stores have been closed for the past three months. The company operated 100 stores in Georgia totaling about 1.2 million sf.

Court records show the chain has received firm offers aggregately valued at about $152 million or $355,972 per store on 427 locations. Swifty Serve co-founders Clay Hamner and Wayne Rogers have tried, unsuccessfully, to buy back 200 stores for about $90 million or $450,000 per location.