Arie Kotler: Nope, I don’t see — I don’t see a lot of people building stores in this environment. And I think not only because it’s hard, it’s also because the cost of construction is probably 40% higher than what we saw before we actually entered the pandemic. I don’t see a lot of basically a lot of big, big stores being built in our markets at all. Now this is not even something that I see over here that actually provide any kind of concern to us.
William Reuter : Good to hear. Okay. Thank you.
Arie Kotler: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. The next question is coming from Anthony Bonadio of Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Anthony Bonadio : Thanks, guys, and congrats Don on your retirement. So I just wanted to ask about acquisition synergies. And I think you guys illustrated a lot of this well, in the Handymart example, in your opening remarks. I think you gave something in the range of 27% of EBITDA in synergies on the transit acquisition. Obviously, you’re growing, still continues to help there. But are you finding that numbers creeping higher over time as you guys evolve the model and refine your refining our approach to things like prepared food, merchandising, and the loyalty program? And then how high could we see that go over time?
Arie Kotler: Don, I will let you take this. Don, I believe you’re on mute. We probably lost Don. So Anthony. And I can’t provide guidance and what’s going to happen in the future. The only thing I can say and again, go back and refer to the Handymark acquisition or, the Pride acquisition that we have out there. And this is acquisition that we already closed. There’s no question that given our size, economy of scale, matter, absolutely matter. But it’s only not only just the economy of scale, it’s also, as I mentioned on the call, it’s also execution. In Handymark, those were there for over 100 years. I mean, this is a brand that we bought in November, and this is 101 year old brand. And those guys had the opportunity to basically to add products or merchandise the stores.
I think what we bring to the table over here, it’s really experience, experienced merchandisers. Most of those small companies don’t have merchandisers and marketing team that is actually sitting behind them. And they’re really relying on the quality of the wholesaler. Given our size and given that we have the merchandising team, and we have the marketing team behind the company, and when we come in and 36 stores, I mean, think about it, adding 700 items to the store, I mean, this is huge. And you see the results, and by the way, the results are coming in a very short order, I can tell you all that we started to basically to work on the planogram of the stores around June. I mean, literally just around June. And within six months, you see the increase.
I mean, we went from 31.5 to 33. So we actually added to 200 basis points to the margin. And on the top of it, we actually saw an increase in sales, which was actually tremendous. And as you can see, we increased store level EBITDA by 30% over here. So I think the smaller the deal, I think the bigger opportunity. The midsize deal, I think the opportunities are going to be there. It’s again, it’s just we bring expertise and execution skills that some of the other companies just don’t have given their size.
Donald Bassell: Hey, Arie, can you hear me now?
Arie Kotler: Yes.
