Speedway By The Numbers
471 Ohio stores
1,370 stores nationally
7th in the nation for number of stores
4th in the nation for number of company-owned stores
Speedway has acquired almost 100 new gas stations in the last month in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana — another sign of the Enon-based company’s growth.
The company, one of the top 10 employers in Clark County, is showing other signs of growth, too: First-quarter reports show a 13 percent growth in sales over last year, and the company has been hiring to replace retirees.
Speedway announced the acquisition of 10 Road Ranger convenience stores in the Ohio and Kentucky area Tuesday.
And May 25, the company completed the purchase of 87 GasAmerica locations in Indiana and Ohio.
“It just gives us another presence in the seven states we’re already in and gives us an opportunity to attract more customers to shop in Speedway,” said Shane Pochard, spokesman for Speedway and parent company Marathon Petroleum Corp. “It gives us the option to grow in a market we’ve already been successful in.”
Speedway already has 471 stores in Ohio and more than 1,370 across seven states. In 2010, the company sold all its SuperAmerica locations in Minnesota, and then last year purchased about 30 Gas City locations, Pochard said.
Speedway and other large convenience store and gas station chains are able to buy more stores because the economic downturn has allowed companies to purchase other facilities more efficiently .
“What’s happened is, when you have an (economic) downturn like we’ve seen these last few years, you can do a fair amount of growth,” said Jeff Lenard, vice president of industry advocacy for the National Association of Convenience Stores. “For companies looking for long-term growth, now is the time.”
Companies such as Speedway focus on buying locations in markets they already have stores in as a way to saturate the area and lower the company’s cost per store. Lenard said this makes distribution and marketing easier and cheaper.
For example, Speedway focuses on the Midwest because that’s where Marathon — which supplies Speedway gas — has refineries and pipelines, Pochard said.
And many companies are starting to rely more on convenience-store purchases rather than their gas sales.
“Three-fourths of profits come from inside-store sales,” Lenard said.
The dominance of in-store sales versus gas sales has allowed Speedway some dominance nationally. Lenard said that oil companies that traditionally dominate gas stations have left more store operations to franchisees.
This is why Speedway/Marathon ranks seventh in the number of convenience stores in the country, according to Convenience Store News. But they rank fourth in company-operated versus franchisee-owned stores.
Speedway’s first-quarter profits help show that. The 13 percent increase was due in part to in-store merchandise sales. Merchandise sales through March totaled $695 million, up from $663 million for the same time last year.
Clark County feels some of the effects as Speedway grows nationally.
“Certainly their growth overall helps the position of the headquarters, and it’s why it’s important to attract company headquarters locally,” said Horton Hobbs, vice president of economic development for the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce. “As it grows, it helps the local economy grow.”
The gas giant has been hiring locally to replace retirees and fill other vacant spots. The company, which employs around 700 people in its headquarters, solicited job seekers at the Regional Development Job Fair hosted by the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce and Job and Family Services of Clark County in May.
“We attend job fairs in a lot of different places as people retire,” Pochard said. “It’s something we do annually and is fairly routine.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0371 or emason@coxohio.com.
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