Speedway LLC
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| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail (convenience stores) |
| Founded | 1959 |
| Headquarters | Enon, Ohio |
| Key people | Tony Kenney, President |
| Parent | Marathon Petroleum Company |
| Website | www.speedway.com |
Speedway LLC is the operator of a chain of combination gas stations and convenience stores in the Midwest and South of the United States operating under the Speedway brand name. Speedway LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Marathon Petroleum Company. It is the largest chain in central Ohio and has more than 1,400 stores throughout the United States.[1]
Contents
History
Speedway 79 was a gasoline chain based in Michigan for much of the first half of the 20th century. In 1959, The Ohio Oil Company (now Marathon) purchased the chain and promptly converted them to the Marathon brand. It was during this time that Marathon was on a spending spree buying out rival chains. This would catch up to them by the 1970s' oil crisis, with many companies, (most notably Mobil, which was thriving from excess cash as a result of the oil crisis), wanting to purchase Marathon. An older, black-and-white commercial featuring Speedway 79 gasoline can be viewed here. The company's jingle in commercials during the 1980s and 1990s was "The convenient products of Speedway", with a list of other brands used by the company, including the Marathon "M" logo.
While this was going on, Marathon decided to revive the Speedway name (without the "79") at higher-volume stations with convenience stores. The concept turned out to be one of the few bright spots for Marathon during this time, and 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 gasoline station chains, including Starvin' Marvin, Gastown, Wake Up, Bonded, United, Checker and others.
In 1997, Marathon and Ashland Petroleum formed Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC (MAP), a joint venture combining 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 together to form Speedway SuperAmerica LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of MAP.
When the merger was completed in 1998, the Speedway and SuperAmerica brands began to market together. The company's jingle was "The convenient stores of _______" (using "Speedway" or "SuperAmerica" depending on the market). The visuals included a generic SSA store and employees with the Speedway or SuperAmerica logo superimposed, rather than appearing on the store or uniforms.
In 2005, Marathon purchased Ashland's share of Marathon Ashland Petroleum, which became Marathon Petroleum Company LLC.
SuperAmerica
| It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article titled SuperAmerica. (Discuss) |
SuperAmerica convenience stores began in the 1960s in St. Paul by Northwestern Refining of St. Paul Park, Minnesota. Ashland Petroleum purchased Northwestern Refining and the SuperAmerica chain in 1970. Much like what Marathon did with Speedway, Ashland used the SuperAmerica brand for its high-volume locations with convenience stores, expanding from Minnesota to its home territory around Ashland, Kentucky (which included Ohio and West Virginia).
During commercials of the 1960s and 1970s, the company's jingle was "Su-per-amer-i-ca, Fill'er up, tank or truck." An extended version with SuperAmerica's cartoon mascot featured the lyrics, "SuperAmericaMan, Great Gas, Good Goods, Ev'ry Night and Day, SuperAmericaMan, When You Run Out, Run In to SA".
The SuperAmerica brand is used in Minnesota as well as at one location in Kentucky, one company-owned and one franchised location in South Dakota, as well as many SuperAmerica stores in western Wisconsin.
Marathon sold SuperAmerica to Northern Tier Energy, a newly formed company, in February 2011.
Today
Today, Speedway LLC is headquartered in Enon, Ohio. The chain is still prominent in the Midwest, but pulled out in the Southeast in 2003 when Marathon sold off Speedway's operations to Sunoco, and pulled out of Minnesota in 2011 when it sold its SuperAmerica Brand to Northern Tier Energy[2], thus renaming the company to Speedway LLC[3]. Around the same time, Speedway's truck stop chain was merged into the Pilot Travel Centers brand after Marathon and Pilot Corp. entered into a partnership to form Pilot Travel Centers. The Speedway brand is used in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Speedway's main rivals include BP, Circle K, Holiday Stationstores, Kwik Trip, and Casey's General Stores. Sheetz competes directly with Speedway stores in West Virginia and eastern Ohio.
While all Marathon locations are franchises, all Speedway locations are owned and operated by Speedway, LLC. and most SuperAmerica locations were owned and operated by Northern Tier Energy LLC until they purchased SuperAmerica in 2011. Only 4% of SuperAmerica stores are individually owned and operated as franchise locations. Most franchise locations are owned by franchisees with 10-15 stores each.
Speedway's current commercial jingle is: "Around the corner, around the country, at work or play we're on your way, the convenient stores of Speedway."
Store Features
Stores typically feature fresh coffee during all hours of operation, hot specialty drinks (such as hot chocolate and cappuccino), a variety of fountain drinks, a deli case for cold subs and sandwiches, and a roller grill for hot food. Most stores also have a hot cart, where breakfast and lunch offerings are available during selected parts of the day. Select locations carry fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts, whereas other locations instead carry packaged Hostess and Dolly Madison doughnuts and other pastries. Essentially, Speedway offers products that can be found at most all other convenience store chains.
Speedy Rewards Card
In 2004, SSA launched its Speedy Rewards Card program. The Speedy Rewards Card is a free card for customers to use when making purchases at Speedway and SuperAmerica stores in order to earn Speedy Rewards Points. These points may be redeemed for coupons for fuel discounts, free food, or giftcards.
A Speedy Rewards Card can be registered (name, address, and PIN are the required registration information) at a Speedy Rewards Terminal in any Speedway or SuperAmerica location. In addition to the points program, the Speedy Rewards Card features "Clubs" that do not require registration. These clubs dispense coupons for free beverages, milk pints, energy shots, and other items when the customer purchases a specific number of them (usually six).
The Speedy Rewards program is sometimes used to make targeted offers in the form of coupons that are dispensed with the Speedy Rewards point balance at checkout. These offers are targeted to customers based on their location or shopping habits.
References
External links
- Speedway's Official Web Site
- Marathon's Official Web Site
- Marathon Petroleum's Official Web Site
- Speedy Rewards
