The Sheetz family of Altoona is listed among America’s richest families, according to the latest issue of Forbes magazine.

Forbes lists the family of the locally based convenience store chain at No. 134 among the nation’s richest families with a net worth of $1.9 billion.

However, company chairman and CEO Joe Sheetz disagrees with the magazine’s estimates, saying they are “inflated.”

“I have no idea where they got their numbers. I told them they are way off,” Sheetz said Friday. “We were not consulted and did not submit anything for that article.”

Sheetz said he believes Forbes came up with its numbers based on recent sales of retail chains.

“The figures they used appear to be based on some recent transactions in the convenience store industry, especially MLP or Master Limited Partnership deals based in the South,” he said.

“They simply took the figures paid for those companies and made a guess of what Sheetz could sell for based on our 500 stores,” Sheetz said.

Sheetz emphasized, “We are not for sale and will remain private.”

Sheetz Inc. took in $6.9 billion in revenues a year and opened its 500th location in February.

Sheetz has stores in six states and is expanding quickly with plans to open more than 30 locations in 2015. Company founder Bob Sheetz has a stated goal of eventually getting to 1,000 stores.

The Sheetz family reportedly owns 90 percent of the company; employees own the rest, Forbes reported.

Forbes also said there are about 35 family members involved in the business, but Joe Sheetz clarified that assertion as well.

“They assume that the family owns the entire company, which we don’t,” he said. “We have an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, and any employee here for more than a year owns stock, as well as hundreds of former employees. The valuations we have done for the ESOP (which are required by law) are nowhere close to the inflated number they are estimating here.

“We have approximately 85 members of our family, most of which own shares in the company along with our 16,000 employees.”

A representative of Forbes was not reached for comment on Friday.

Sheetz said he isn’t sure how to gauge the national publicity.

“It can be good or bad,” he said, adding the company has been transparent with its work force. “Our employees can figure out what it (company) is worth.”

The Walton family, which owns Wal-Mart, is listed as the nation’s richest family with a net worth of $149 billion, well ahead of the Koch family, which is second on the list at $86 billion.