Henry D. Sahakian | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | February 23, 2021 84) | (aged
Alma mater | Pennsylvania State University |
Occupation(s) | businessman, founder of Uni-Mart |
Spouse | Seda |
Henry D. Sahakian was the founder of Uni-Mart, which quickly became one of the largest convenience store and gasoline station chains in the United States. A Christian Armenian from Iran who moved to the United States in 1956, he studied mechanical engineering at Pennsylvania State University. There, he founded Unico, a builder of student housing projects.
The venture was a success, but Sahakian sought new challenges and, noting the rapid growth of Southland Corporation's 7-Eleven convenience stores throughout the region, flew to the chain's Dallas headquarters to personally petition for an exclusive territory of stores. When Southland offered him only a single store, Sahakian turned to Munford, Inc., the Atlanta-based owners of the Ma-jik Market convenience store chain, which granted him a 20-year license for convenience stores in the state of Pennsylvania.
Sahakian opened several Ma-jik Market stores in Central Pennsylvania in the early 1970s and by 1980 was operating 90 stores in the state. In 1981, he severed his relationship with the Maj-jik Market chain and rebranded his stores as Uni-Mart. His convenience store chain continued to rapidly expand in the Mid-Atlantic region and eventually grew to nearly 300 stores at its peak. Sahakian was also a licensed pilot and co-founded Sana Airlines, which later became Atlantic Airlines. [1]
In addition to housing development, airline, and convenience store businesses, Sahakian and his family also owned various hotel, restaurant, and automotive oil change specialty shop franchises in the State College, Pennsylvania area. [2] [3]
Henry Sahakian, and his wife Seda, established the Henry D. Sahakian Family Fund to help offer financial support to various Centre County, Pennsylvania charitable organizations. Sahakian received the prestigious Oak Tree Award form the Centre Foundation for his philanthropic support and devoted leadership.
A convenience store, bodega, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail store that stocks a range of everyday items such as tea, coffee, groceries, fruits, vegetables, snacks, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery tickets, over-the-counter drugs, toiletries, newspapers and magazines. In some jurisdictions, convenience stores are licensed to sell alcoholic drinks, although many jurisdictions limit such beverages to those with relatively low alcohol content, like beer and wine. The stores may also offer money order and wire transfer services, along with the use of a fax machine or photocopier for a small per-copy cost. Some also sell tickets or recharge smart cards, e.g. OPUS cards in Montreal or include a small deli. They differ from general stores and village shops in that they are not in a rural location and are used as a convenient supplement to larger stores.
7-Eleven, Inc. is an American convenience store chain, headquartered in Irving, Texas and owned by Japanese Seven & I Holdings through Seven-Eleven Japan Co., Ltd. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. After Ito-Yokado, a Japanese supermarket chain and the parent company of Seven-Eleven Japan, acquired a 70% stake in the company in 1991, the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Seven-Eleven Japan in November, 2005.
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., or simply Couche-Tard, is a Canadian multinational operator of convenience stores. The company has 14,302 stores across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Japan, China, and Indonesia. The company operates its corporate stores mainly under the Couche-Tard, Circle K, and On the Run brands but also under the affiliated brands Mac's Convenience Stores, go!, 7-jours, Dairy/Daisy Mart, Becker's and Winks.
Sobeys Inc. is the second largest supermarket chain in Canada after Loblaw Companies Limited, with over 1,500 stores operating across Canada under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales of more than C$25.1 billion in the fiscal 2019 operating year. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire Company Limited, a Canadian business conglomerate.
Circle K Stores, Inc. is a chain of convenience stores that is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and owned by Alimentation Couche-Tard, Inc., based in Laval, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1951 in El Paso, Texas, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 1990 and went through several owners, before being acquired by Alimentation Couche-Tard in 2003. As of February 2020, Circle K has 9,799 stores in North America, 2,697 stores in Europe, and an additional 2,380 stores operating under franchise agreements worldwide.
Wawa, Inc. is an American chain of convenience stores and gas stations originating in the Philadelphia metropolitan area and now located along the East Coast of the United States, operating in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Florida. Wawa is based in, primarily associated with, and mainly concentrated in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, though in recent years it has gradually expanded its store locations beyond the Philadelphia area. The company's corporate headquarters is located in the Wawa area of Chester Heights, Pennsylvania in Greater Philadelphia.
Sheetz, Inc. is an American chain of convenience stores and coffee shops owned by the Sheetz family. The stores sell custom food, beverages and convenience store items, with all locations having offered 24/7 service since the 1980s. Nearly all of them sell gasoline; a few locations are full-scale truck stops, including showers and a laundromat. Sheetz's headquarters is in Altoona, Pennsylvania, with their corporate offices located there as well, with over 700 stores located in Central and Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina, with plans to expand into Michigan.
Lawson, Inc. is a convenience store franchise chain in Japan. The store originated in the United States in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, but exists today as a Japanese company based in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The company has its headquarters in East Tower of Gate City Ohsaki in Ōsaki, Shinagawa, Tokyo.
The FamilyMart Company, Ltd. is a Japanese convenience store franchise chain. It is Japan's second largest convenience store chain, behind Seven-Eleven Japan. There are now 24,574 stores worldwide in Japan, Taiwan, China, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Its headquarters is on the 17th floor of the Sunshine 60 building in Ikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo. There were some stores in Japan with the name Circle K Sunkus under the operation of FamilyMart.
APlus is an American convenience store chain owned and operated by Energy Transfer Partners, with some stores currently owned by Seven & I Holdings (7-Eleven). APlus is also the convenience store chain used by Sunoco.
Uni-Mart was a Pennsylvania-based company that owned, operated and franchised numerous convenience stores in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States (US). In 2008, the company operated 283 convenience stores and gas stations in the US states of Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio, and, as of 1995, its annual sales totaled $327.01 million. Henry Sahakian was Uni-Mart's founder and, as of 1997, the company consisted of 2,700 employees.
The Fred W. Albrecht Grocery Company, under the trade name Acme Fresh Market, is a grocery store chain based in Akron, Ohio, that has 16 locations in Summit, Portage, Stark, and Cuyahoga counties of Northeast Ohio. It was established in 1891.
Needs Convenience is a chain of convenience stores throughout Atlantic Canada.
Dari Mart is a chain of convenience stores located in the U.S. state of Oregon. Dari Mart has 44 stores located exclusively within the Willamette Valley of Oregon, from Albany to Cottage Grove. It is most notable as a supplier of milk, ice cream, and other dairy products from Lochmead Farms, one of the largest independent dairy farms in the Pacific Northwest. Most store locations are in the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area in Lane County, Oregon, while several stores are located in rural communities in Lane, Linn and Benton Counties. Lochmead Farms sells 1.5 million US gallons (5,700,000 L) of milk and 500,000 US gallons (1,900,000 L) of ice cream a year through the chain of stores, and the joint store-farm operation employs more than 450 people. The company has started selling dairy products internationally as well.
McLane is an American wholesale supply chain services company which distributes grocery and non-food to convenience stores, discount retailers, wholesale clubs, drug stores, military bases, quick service restaurants, and casual dining restaurants throughout the United States. It is also a wholesale distributor of distilled spirits, wine, and beer in some US states. McLane is organised in three segments: grocery distribution, serving about 49,000 retail locations, foodservice distribution, catering to about 36,500 chain restaurants, and beverage distribution, servicing about 24,900 retail locations in the Southeastern US and Colorado.
H Mart is an American supermarket chain of Asian supermarkets operated by the Hanahreum Group, headquartered in Lyndhurst, Bergen County, New Jersey. The chain has 84 stores throughout the United States, operated variously as H Mart, H Mart Northwest, and H Mart Colorado; two stores in the Pacific Northwest operate as G Mart. It also has stores in Canada and two in the United Kingdom. H Mart is the largest U.S.-based grocery store chain that specializes in Asian-style products and caters to Asian-American shoppers.
Minit Mart LLC is a chain of convenience stores operating in South Central and Western Kentucky, northern Middle Tennessee, eastern Wisconsin, Kansas City, Northeast Illinois, and Northeast Ohio. Its corporate offices are located in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the chain consists of 231 locations scattered around the United States.
GPM Investments LLC (GPM) is a convenience store owner and operator based in Richmond, Virginia. Founded in 2003, it originally operated the Fas Mart and Shore Stop brands of convenience stores, and decided to expand.
KK Super Mart is a convenience store chain in Malaysia. Established in 2001, it is named after its founder, Datuk Seri Dr. KK Chai. The first location of KK Supermart occupied the ground floor of a shoplot at Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park in Kuala Lumpur with an initial capital of only RM 60,000.