Greg Parker, CEO of Parker’s convenience stores, was recently posed a question by his son: Would you rather do what you love and not make a lot of money or do something you hate and make a fortune?
The answer was not as straightforward for Parker as it might seem. In 1975, at age 21, Parker found himself overseeing the completion of his family’s first convenience store in Liberty County.
By his own admission, this wasn’t exactly his dream job. Fresh out of the University of Georgia, he worked every day for three and a half years — opening, closing, doing the books, cooking the hamburgers, pumping gas, cleaning windshields and checking oil.
“My friends were all in great places doing great and interesting things, and I was living out in the country and working every single day and I hated life,” said Parker. “But I stuck with it, and I grew to love what I did.”
At the time, a “strong fear of failure” and having his entire family depending on him propelled him forward, Parker said. It wasn’t until he started to progress and gain mentors that he grew more confident and passionate for his work.
“It wasn’t this instant thing or that I had this epiphany that I was going to own a bunch of convenience stores. I wish I could say that I had that grand scheme, but I didn’t,” said Parker. “What I had was stick–to–itiveness. And a competitive spirit. And I wanted to be really good at what I did.”
Parker’s “stick–to–itiveness” has yielded success. The 59-year-old oversees a $500 million convenience store empire that has landed on Inc. magazine’s list of 5,000 fastest-growing private companies two years running.
And Parker has barely scratched the surface. He will open his 35th store in Vidalia in January and has 17 more in the pipeline.
Now, customers can find a Parker’s in seven counties across southeast Georgia and just across the border in Bluffton. He’s also opened new locations as far west as Metter along with two new stations in Statesboro.
The expansion drive is part of Parker’s larger vision to become a multi-billion-dollar company.
To do that, he said, the company will have to step up acquisitions of other gas stations in addition to new construction, overcome permitting obstacles in South Carolina and keep hiring employees who can deliver on Parker’s high standards for customer service.
Parker believes it’s the right time for growth.
“Money is cheap, real estate values are down, unemployment is up, which means there are lots of good, talented people to hire. So our thought has been, grow now and when the economy starts to heat up, we’re in the catbird seat,” said Parker.
Data worship
A key to Parker’s entrepreneurial risk-taking is his reliance on metrics.
“What differentiates us is we worship data in this company,” he said. “And we are really good at analyzing data. We also use technology in a way that other people don’t.”
Parker pores over key performance indicators every day, looking at gross profit per labor dollar, break-even cents per gallon and average time per transaction.
“I’m looking for every single gallon of gas I can sell,” said Parker. “There is no way I’m going to let a competitor get up on me. We’re going to be the low price leader.”
In that vein, the company has 75,000-80,000 people enrolled in its PumpPal loyalty program. The proprietary card acts like a debit card and when used to purchase gas at a Parker’s, the pump automatically shaves a few cents off every gallon.
“We’ve given back $3.5 million to our customers since we started it,” said Parker. “And that’s significant, it’s meaningful, and it makes me very, very proud. Because not only did we do it, but we forced our competitors to react to it.”
A common misconception, he said, is the amount of money a gas station earns on each gallon of gas. On average, he collects 12 to 14 cents a gallon, and that’s before credit card expenses. Creating the PumpPal program, he said, was a way to deprive Visa and Mastercard of their cut and, ultimately, offer better prices to customers.
The ‘special sauce’ of Parker’s
Parker emphasizes the importance of hiring the right people to help grow his company, which includes an oil distribution arm and real estate. In the last year, Parker has hired four key positions, including an Armstrong graduate to be his director of fuels.
“We have great, competent people in roles, and we need to have a little more depth,” Parker said. He’s looking to hire a controller, human resources director and supervisors to maintain control over his expanding operations.
“Are we going to be able to maintain our level of quality as we grow? … Quite frankly, I think that’s our biggest challenge,” said Parker.
“We’re not just growing and then saying, “Oh my gosh, we’ve got to catch up.’ We’re being circumspect in the way that we do it.”
He believes using the right technology, having talented people on board and providing fast, friendly and reliable service will fuel his convenience-store conquest.
Said Parker: “Our biggest challenge is going to be people and maintaining the culture and having that ‘special sauce,’ which people know and love and respect.”
About the Honorees
As 2013 comes to a close, the Savannah Morning News and Savannahnow continue the tradition of profiling companies and organizations that made major contributions to the local business environment in the past year. The Business in Savannah staff chose the honorees from a list of nominees submitted by local business and community leaders, utilizing broad criteria – from growth and success to philanthropy and community involvement.
Wednesday: SBAC — Business Advocate of the Year
Thursday: River Street Sweets — Retail Business of the Year
Friday: MLET — Business Education Partner of the Year
Today: Parker’s Stores — Entrepreneurial Business of the Year
Sunday: Manufacturer of the Year
Dec. 31: Small Business of the Year
Jan. 1: Newcomer of the Year
ENTREPRENEURIAL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
Winner: Parker’s
Leader: Greg Parker, CEO
Business sector: Oil/Convenience stores
Annual Sales: $500 million
Number of stores: 35
Number of employees: 400
Recent Milestones: New stores opened in Bluffton, S.C., Springfield and Statesboro.
Plans for 2014: Replacing POS systems in all stores to speed up transactions, adding more key management positions, constructing and opening new stores, and preparing for acquisitions of up to $100 million.