【正文】 en stores rose from 817 in 1972 to 3,703 by the end of 1975. 1927:John Jefferson Green and Joe C. Thompson establish Southland Ice Company and the first known convenience store. 1928:Southland stores begin operating as 39。Tote39。m Stores.39。 1931:Great Depression plunges Southland into bankruptcy. 1933:Following the repeal of Prohibition, ice and beer sales surge. 1936:Vertical integration begins with construction of Oak Farms Dairies. 1939:Company is operating 60 Tote39。m Stores in the DallasFort Worth area. 1946:The stores are rebranded 39。7Eleven39。 to emphasize their long operations hours7 . to 11 . 1947:Purchase of Texas Public Utilities makes the pany the largest ice operator in Texas. 1961:The Southland Corporation is incorporated。 Joseph Thompson names son John as the pany39。s second president。 son Jere is elected vicepresident of sales. 1963:Company begins franchising after being introduced to the concept through its acquisition of 100 SpeeDee Marts in California this same year. 1965:The Slurpee makes its debut in 7Eleven stores, which now number 1,159. 1969:Company expands to the East Coast and into Canada。 store count reaches 3,537. 1971:Sales reach $1 billion. 1973:Area license for Japan is granted to ItoYokado Co., Ltd. 1974:The 5,000th 7Eleven opens at site of the pany39。s original ice dock. 北京物資學(xué)院 2022 屆畢業(yè)論文231983:Citgo Petroleum Corporation is acquired for $780 million. 1986:Company sells 50 percent interest in Citgo to the Venezuelan stateowned oil pany. 1987:The Thompson brothers plete an LBO of Southland. 1988:Company pletes series of divestitures to streamline operations and reduce debt. 1990:After defaulting on $ billion in publicly traded debt, Southland files for bankruptcy. 1991:Company emerges from bankruptcy with debt restructured and with IYG Holding Company of Japan owning 70 percent of its mon stock. 1992:To focus on core 7Eleven business, pany exits from the distribution and food processing businesses. 1996:Most extensive store remodeling program in pany history is pleted. 1999:Company changes its name to 7Eleven, Inc. Southland reached $1 billion in sales by 1971 and became a member of the New York Stock Exchange the following year. The first regional distribution center was opened in Florida in 1971。 by 1977 several such centers were fully functioning and serving more than 3,000 7Eleven stores. Jere Thompson, named president of Southland in 1973, continued Southland39。s American retail store expansion. Southland began to use microwaves for fastfood sales and introduced selfservice gasoline through its newly acquired PakaSak stores. In 1974, the 5,000th 7Eleven store opened in Dallas at the site of John Jefferson39。s original ice dock. Peration of the European market occurred with Southland39。s purchase of a 50 percent interest in Cavenham Ltd., a manufacturing corporation controlling 840 retail outlets in Great Britain. By early 1974, Southland39。s international operations included 50 percent interest in 1,096 United Kingdom outlets, 75 7Eleven stores in Canada, and four Super7 Stores in Mexico. Negotiations for the introduction of 7Eleven to Japan were pleted in December 1973, when Southland granted ItoYokado Co., Ltd., one of Japan39。s largest retailers, an area license. Like the franchise concept in the United States, area licensing worked well in Japan because of its emphasis on the individual businessperson operating a store but able to take advantage of 7Eleven39。s name and established systems of management and accounting. By late 1978, 188 7Eleven stores were open for business in Japan. 北京物資學(xué)院 2022 屆畢業(yè)論文24Also in 1978, Southland bought Chief Auto Parts, a California chain of 119 retail automobile parts stores. By 1986 Chief Auto Parts was the largest convenience retailer of automobile parts in the nation, operating 465 stores. Another Southland acquisition was Tidel Systems, a manufacturer of cashdispensing systems and underground gasolinetankmonitoring systems. But Southland39。s most significant acquisition by far was the Citgo Petroleum Corporation, purchased in August 1983. Southland hoped that the $780 million acquisition would provide a smooth supply of gasoline for its convenience stores. But because of a decrease in demand and a glut in capacity throughout the oil refining industry, the Citgo purchase resulted in a pretax loss of $50 million for Southland. Profits in 1985 exceeded the previous year39。s loss by $20 million, but nevertheless, Southland cut Citgo39。s petroleum production in half, expecting Citgo39。s Lake Charles, Louisiana refinery to be unprofitable. In September 1986 Southland decided to sell a 50 percent interest in Citgo to a subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, ., the Venezuelan stateowned oil pany。 Southland also signed a 20year product purchase agreement with Citgo through which Southland agreed to purchase a certain minimum amount of gasoline from Citgo at market prices. From LBO to Bankruptcy: 198791 In mid1987 the Thompson brothers, spurred in part by the threat of a hostile takeover bid by Canadian raider Samuel Belzburg, initiated a leveraged buyout. The buyout, which involved the formation of a temporary holding pany called JT Acquisitions, was pleted on July 6,1987. By the end of 1988 Southland had pleted a series of divestitures to streamline operations. Southland sold Chief Auto Parts, the snack foods division, the dairies group, Reddy Ice, Chemical/Food Labs, Tidel Systems, 1,000 convenience stores, and related real estate properties. Proceeds from the divestitures, as well as the transfer of royalties from licensees in Japan, went to repay a portion of the $4 billion debt Southland had incurred through the leveraged buyout. Southland may well have rebounded by the early 1990s were it not for petition from convenien