Kosmidis family behind X Convenience secures huge payday
The family behind the X Convenience empire has followed rival OTR in securing a huge sale that will set them up for life. Here’s their story.
It’s rapidly emerged as one of the state’s most recognisable retail brands, but little is known about the family behind fuel and convenience chain X Convenience, which capped off a rapid growth spurt this week with a huge deal to sell the business to global fuel giant BP.
From humble beginnings as driveway attendants, brothers Steve and Tom Kosmidis acquired their first petrol station in 2006, and by 2013 had six sites across Adelaide.
But it’s been over the past five years that younger brother Steve, 44, has adopted a more aggressive strategy – opening multiple new sites each year, expanding into Perth in 2021, and growing the network to more than 50 sites.
Company records show Tom, 48, stepped down as a director of several of the Andrash group of companies that operated the X Convenience business in 2017, leaving Steve as the sole director and driver of the company’s expansion.
While maintaining a relatively low profile, he’s become one of the titans of the state’s fuel industry, building an empire with sites from the Barossa Valley to Victor Harbor, and right across suburban Adelaide, going head-to-head with the Shahin family’s OTR.
X Convenience’s success has been based on a similar business model to its larger rival, providing a higher-end convenience offering designed to lure customers to spend more time and money in-store.
Like OTR, it offers a range of in-store concepts including Coffee Station, Smokes Express, BurgerX and Down Dog ‘N Shakes – all designed to generate a larger share of customer spend on products in-store.
For the Shahins, the pioneering concept culminated in a $1.215bn sale of the business and its 180-plus fuel sites to Viva Energy – a deal that was finalised just two months ago.
While a sale price for X Convenience was not disclosed by BP, industry sources suggest it could be well in excess of $100m.
KPMG partner Simon Campbell, who advised X Convenience on the sale, would not comment on the sale price or expand on details behind the deal, but said the business had emerged as another South Australian success story at the forefront of an evolving industry.
“The success of X Convenience is testament to its ability to respond to the evolving consumer demands for high quality specialty retail and food offerings that accompany a competitive fuel offering.”
Much of the Kosmidis family’s wealth is tied to the multimillion-dollar landholdings where their petrol stations operate.
Property records reveal dozens of properties owned by the family’s Andrash group, including petrol station and development sites across Adelaide and in regional areas including Kadina and Ceduna, and in Victor Harbor where it owns a Hungry Jack’s restaurant site adjacent to one of its petrol stations.
Like the Shahins, it is understood the Kosmidis family will retain ownership of many of the petrol station properties, as well as the Pit Stop Car Wash business which operates six facilities across Adelaide.
OTR’s success was the foundation for the Shahin family’s immense wealth, with brothers Khalil, Sam and Yasser estimated to have built a $1.48bn fortune on the back of what was the state’s largest privately-owned company before its sale to Viva.
Their property and development interests include The Bend motorsport park, office towers in Adelaide’s CBD, landmark retail properties along Rundle Mall and rural properties including the Aileron Station cattle property in Northern Territory as well as vineyards, cherry, fig and almond orchards and olive groves.
While property records suggest the Kosmidis family’s wealth is largely confined to its petrol station sites, this week’s huge payday could see it follow a similar path into broader commercial property interests.
Mr Kosmidis did not return calls from The Advertiser, but said in a statement announcing the sale that he was excited for the “next chapter of the business as BP continues to build the X Convenience network and delivering for our customers”.
BP vice president of business development and low carbon solutions Lisa Archbold said the strength of the X Convenience brand in the South Australia market was a key reason behind the company’s decision to acquire the business.
“It’s certainly an enormous local success story, and it’s grown really rapidly. The offers that they’ve got in market are really first rate – a very high quality offer, a high quality network,” she said.
“And it wasn’t just about the sites. It was also about the fact that this is a really terrific network – it’s got a terrific offer and it’s got a terrific convenience brand, so it strategically fits with us as well, both in the fuels and in the convenience space.”
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