MARSHFIELD, WI (WSAU) — Marshfield-based Baltus Oil Company has sold their popular ‘Bread and Butter Shop’ locations around Central Wisconsin to Riiser Fuels of Wausau, who themselves were recently acquired by GPM Investments of Virginia.
Company president John Baltus announced the sale of the eight convenience stores on Thursday. “Riiser is in an expansion mode, so it just made sense to align with them and make the sale happen, and we did that effective today.”
The sale doesn’t include the company’s wholesale fuel distribution service, but it’s still a major downsizing for Baltus. “It’s going to be kind of a culture shock for us here to go from about 145 employees to four.”
As for those Baltus Co. employees, well it looks like most of them will be keeping their jobs! According to John Baltus, “By-in-large all of our employees have been rehired by Riiser Fuels, so it’s all good news for our employees.”
The Baltus Oil Company can be traced back to 1927, when it began as a single family-owned gas station in Marshfield.
Wausau-based Riiser Fuels currently has a total of 67 stores across Wisconsin; and parent company GPM Investments operates more than 1500 convenience stores nationwide with associations to all of the major oil companies, including Shell, B.P., Amaco, and Mobil.
