Headquartered in St. Joseph, Pri Mar operated 13 Pri Mart branded convenience stores and supplied 12 wholesale dealers throughout southwestern Michigan, selling fuels under the bp, Amoco and CITGO brands. The company also delivered commercial fuels, heating oil and lubricants to more than 2,000 customers from its three bulk plant facilities.

A third-generation, family-owned and operated business, Pri Mar was founded by Harry Priebe and his brother in 1928 as a distributor of petroleum products to farm, industrial and home heating customers. In 1972, Harry Priebe’s son-in-law, L. Richard Marzke, took over the company and merged the two surnames together to create Pri Mar Petroleum. 

Pri Mar opened its first c-store in 1976 in Stevensville, Mich. It was one of the first convenience stores in the area, and the success of this store led to the conversion of other gasoline service stations into c-stores.

L. Richard Marzke’s son, Kurt Marzke, joined Pri Mar as the general manager in 1984 and was soon followed by his brother Craig Marzke in 1989, his brother Chris Marzke in 1997 and his brother Kevin Marzke in 2006. Pri Mar grew to service all of southwestern Michigan through its retail stores and fuels distribution network, and employ approximately 120 team members. The company remained family-owned under the leadership of Kurt Marzke, CEO; Craig Marzke, executive vice president and chief operating officer; and Kevin Marzke, vice president and chief technology officer.

Matrix provided merger and acquisition advisory services to the company, which included valuation advisory, marketing the businesses through confidential, structured sale processes, and negotiation of the transactions. The transactions were managed by Vance Saunders, managing director, and Kyle Tipping, vice president.

“We’re honored to have advised the Marzkes on these transactions, culminating three generations of their family’s hard work building a truly outstanding company. We really enjoyed working with the Marzke brothers and wish them well in their next chapter,” Saunders said.

Otto Konrad and Kaitlin Cottle of Williams Mullen served as legal counsel for Pri Mar on both transactions.