Operations of the Interstate Food Stop convenience stores in Mississippi and Louisiana are to be acquired from a local company by a larger chain based in North Carolina.

The Pantry of Sanford, N.C., will buy 39 Interstate stores’ operations from Waring Oil Company of Vicksburg, Waring Oil’s Dan Waring said this morning.

&#8220We found a partner on a retail level,” Waring said, adding the transaction represents the sale of the business operations and the long-term lease of the buildings and properties.

&#8220We’re still in the business of wholesaling gas and fuels” and supplying lubricants to wholesale customers.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be closed early next year, a Thursday report in the industry publication CSP Information Group said.

Waring Oil operates 43 convenience-store operations, Waring said. The stores in Vicksburg that the deal calls for The Pantry to acquire are Interstate Texaco, 3060 Indiana Ave., and Texaco Interstate Food Stop No. 37, 4460 Clay St., Waring said.

The retail operations of Waring’s four stores that were not acquired by The Pantry will be leased to individual operators, Waring said. Among those stores is Interstate Food Stop, 431 Port Terminal Circle, Waring said.

The Pantry already operates 61 stores in Mississippi and Louisiana, the CSP article reported. The company operates about 1,400 stores in 11 Southeastern states under many names, including Kangaroo Express, Golden Gallon and Cowboys, it added.

No spokesman for The Pantry was available.

&#8220The Pantry came in and made an acceptable offer to the company,” the CSP article quoted Waring’s head of retail operations, Doug Greenough, as saying. &#8220The industry is consolidating, and it’s getting harder to be a smaller operator.”