In simplest terms, we operate retail locations for those who don’t want to operate them or don’t have the expertise or infrastructure to operate them.
Think of CMSI as a corporate aspirin. We will make your retail headache go away.
In some cases, our client’s vision or mission has shifted away from retail to some other core competency. In others, a real estate loan package, multi-site lease agreement or franchise relationship has proved unworkable to one or both parties and our client has an unanticipated retail portfolio that must perform in order to be sold profitably. In yet others, ownership of the business is in transition and the retail portion needs more attention than management can give it for an interim period.
We have no minimum number of sites requirement and we will operate anywhere in the US (or the world, for that matter). If you have one site – no problem. If you have 200 sites – no problem.
CMSI will step in and assume responsibility for operating the sites for as long as you need us. Our clients don’t have to guarantee us a minimum contract period. We can operate your locations for a month or several years, but rest assured that we will be taking care of your business while you are taking care of other things.
The more sites we operate for you and the longer we run them the cheaper we become. Any cost savings that we gain from economies of scale we pass on to you.
Of huge importance to most of our clients, we’ll do it with little or no notice. We have literally deployed our takeover teams to new markets with 24 hours notice. Sounds extreme, but it can happen when a multi-site dealer or franchisee simply walks away from a group of sites with no notice. We don’t call our takeover teams “smoke jumpers” for nothing – they love the challenge of taking over sites and bringing up the site’s performance standards.
We take the headaches out of the portfolio for our clients by providing all or some of the following services, based entirely on client needs and desires:
- a management team in the field to oversee site operations
- a complete Marketing and Merchandising program that allows our clients to take advantage of existing vendor relationships with an existing network of stores
- a backroom and home office accounting package -- and the people to maintain it -- that would cost our clients tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase and maintain
- a payroll and human resources system that allows our client to avoid or shed the head count that normally inflates the total corporate count unrealistically due to the large number of staff required to run retail locations. The retail staff is hired by CMSI and we assume all HR responsibilities for them, including unemployment and withholding taxes, legal exposures and similar personnel-related headaches
- an IT Department that keeps everything running and ensures communications and information reporting integrity and security
- fuel specialists that handle everything from street prices to dispatching to environmental compliance
In a nutshell, we can provide hands-on professional management ranging from a comprehensive turn key site operations package to just providing field supervision on a regular basis. We can replace or supplement your current operations and accounting structure or provide you with a more professional tenant or dealer relationship. If you need a Receiver we have the experience to act as one or to work with the one appointed for the site.
If you’re unhappy with anything, it’s our problem -- no finger-pointing, no need to find another vendor, another software program or another fuel brand -- we just fix it to your satisfaction and carry on with the mission.
Whether it is a convenience store, fuel site, car wash, lube center, coffee shop, yogurt store, office building kiosk, snack shop, or any other small format retail location, CMSI is the solution to your operational needs.
