History
Speedway started in 1952 as Speedway 79, the name of a fuel chain based in Michigan. Unlike other fuel station chains at the time, Speedway 79 did not have a service station to perform vehicle maintenance, but rather vending machines that focused on cigarette and soft drink sales, giving their locations the nickname "Smokes and Cokes". The "79" denoted the octane rating of Speedway's gasoline. In 1959, Marathon Oil, then known as the Ohio Oil Company, purchased the chain and in 1962 converted its outlets to the Marathon brand.[7]
As self-service fuel became legalized in many states, in May 1975 Marathon decided to use "Speedway" (without the "79", as 87 octane had become the standard at this point) at higher-volume self-service stations with convenience stores. Some of the first were converted from Oshkosh, Wisconsin–based Consolidated Stores, which at the time had locations in Wisconsin and Michigan. These stores were converted to the Speedway name throughout the 1970s and 1980s after Marathon acquired Consolidated.[8] The concept turned out to be one of the few bright spots for Marathon during this time due to the 1970s energy crisis, and the company quickly expanded this concept across Marathon's main territories across the Midwest and Southeastern United States. Part of this expansion was through the acquisition of various other smaller regional fuel station chains, including GasAmerica, Starvin' Marvin, Gastown, Wake Up, Bonded, United, Cheker, Port, Ecol, and Value. These stations were converted to the Speedway branding. Stations acquired in the Cheker deal included former Enco stations that Cheker acquired after they were sold off by Exxon in 1977.[9] Legally, Marathon's convenience store business was known as Emro Marketing Company during this period,[10] getting its name from placing an "E" in front of Marathon Oil's ticker symbol, MRO. Speedway adopted its current logo, known as the "Moving S", in 1982.
In 1997, Marathon and Ashland Petroleum formed Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC (MAP), a joint venture which combined the companies' refining, marketing, and transportation businesses, with Marathon owning 62% of the operations while Ashland owned 38%. In the process, Ashland's SuperAmerica and Marathon's Speedway convenience store chains were merged to form Speedway SuperAmerica LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of MAP. At this time, Marathon acquired the rights to the Solo, Save Mart, Save More, and Rich brands from Ashland, along with others. Many of these brands would be converted to the Speedway brand over time. When the merger was completed in 1998, the Speedway and SuperAmerica brands began to market together. Marathon Ashland also purchased Total Petroleum of Alma, Michigan, in 1999.[11] The stations, which had been previously owned by Diamond Shamrock, were mostly in the state of Michigan. Most former Total locations were then rebranded to Marathon, Speedway, or Rich.[12] Speedway acquired the 50-unit Welsh Mart chain of Michigan and Indiana in 2001.[13] This was followed in 2002 by the acquisition of 30 stores from Grand Rapids, Michigan–based Crystal Flash.[14]
In 2003, Marathon sold off Speedway's Southeastern stores to Sunoco, who promptly converted them to the A-Plus brand while selling Sunoco fuel,[15] while Speedway's stores in Western Pennsylvania were sold off to independent owners and converted to standard Marathon stations, withdrawing the Speedway brand from Pennsylvania and south of West Virginia and Kentucky for a decade.
Speedway became one of the first convenience store chains in the industry to launch a loyalty program when it launched Speedy Rewards in 2004. The program was launched almost by accident: Marathon had launched a similar program for its traditional Marathon-branded fuel stations but found inconsistent use among its franchise owners and felt that the program might work better with Speedway, since all of its locations were owned and operated directly by Marathon. The program has since been ranked by multiple independent publications as being the best loyalty program on the market.[16]
In 2005, Marathon purchased Ashland's share of Marathon Ashland Petroleum, which became Marathon Petroleum Company LLC, retaining the SuperAmerica and Rich brands that were originally owned by Ashland. At this time the locations outside the Upper Midwest were converted to Speedway and the SuperAmerica brand was restricted to the Upper Midwest market. Marathon sold SuperAmerica to Northern Tier Energy, a newly formed company backed by the private equity firms ACON Investments and TPG Capital, in February 2011. It is based in Woodbury, Minnesota. Speedway and SuperAmerica became unrelated chains until seven years later, when Marathon bought Andeavor, who owns SuperAmerica's parent company Western Refining. Following the separation of Marathon's upstream and downstream operations in 2011, Speedway remained a part of Marathon's downstream operations.
In 2001, Speedway's truck stop chain was merged into the Pilot Travel Centers brand after Marathon and Pilot Corporation entered into a partnership to form Pilot Travel Centers. Pilot has since bought out Marathon's interest in Pilot Travel Centers, now Pilot Flying J. Following its merger with Hess Corporation's retail chain in 2014, six WilcoHess locations in Virginia were rebranded as Pilot locations and jointly operated between Pilot Flying J and Speedway.[17] On June 23, 2016, Pilot Flying J and Speedway announced a new joint venture between the two companies that will see 41 Speedway locations (all former Wilco Hess locations) and 79 Pilot Flying J locations primarily in the Southeastern United States form PFJ Southeast LLC. The locations will be operated by Pilot Flying J and the Speedway locations will be rebranded as either Pilot or Flying J.[18]
As of December 9, 2014, 12% of Speedway stores carry E85 ethanol.[19] Speedway currently has 326 stores with E85 available, and one store which carries CNG. Almost all of its stores in Greater Pittsburgh as well as its stores in the state of Tennessee offer E85, greatly expanding the availability of the fuel in these respective markets.
Expansion since 2012
2012–14 expansion
On February 13, 2012, it was announced that a deal had been reached with Indiana and Ohio convenience store chain GasAmerica to acquire all 88 of its locations.[20] Speedway also acquired all trademarks, trade dress and intellectual property from GasAmerica[21] and included several parcels of undeveloped real estate for future development. The transaction was finalized on May 29, 2012, for an unspecified price.[22]
On June 5, 2012, it was reported that Speedway LLC signed a deal with the convenience store chain Road Ranger. The deal gave Speedway nine Road Ranger stores in Kentucky, and one in Ohio, in exchange for cash and a truck stop in the Chicago metropolitan area.[23]
