The US Gas Station Chain You Might Not Know Is Owned By A Japanese Company

Whether or not you are particular about which brand of gas you put in your car, you probably don't think much about who owns a particular chain of gas stations. And that's why it's probably surprising for American motorists to learn that some gas station brands operating in the U.S. are actually Russian-owned, for example. 

But those Russian-owned Lukoil stations in the Northeast are far from the only gasoline retailers in America owned by an overseas company. In fact, one large gasoline chain that has an especially large presence in the Midwest is actually owned by a massive Japanese corporation, and the story of how it came to be that way is quite fascinating.

Speedway is the gas station we're talking about here, and even if you don't have Speedway stations in your area, you've very likely heard of Speedway's Japanese owner, Seven & i Holdings (also known as 7-Eleven). Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd has owned the Speedway gas station chain since 2021 and the international 7-Eleven brand of convenience stores since 2005. It's an interesting story of how two historic and well-known American roadside brands continue to prosper under Japanese ownership in the modern era.

The Speedway brand name has a long history that dates back to an early 1950s Michigan-based gasoline chain, Aurora Gasoline Company, which used "Speedway 79" branding to market its 79-octane gasoline. Marathon Petroleum of Ohio, which was once part of the massive Standard Oil empire, acquired the chain in 1959 and then decided to rebrand and grow its self-service gas stations under the Speedway name in the 1970s.

Though Ohio and the upper Midwest have the highest concentration of Speedway stations in America, the Speedway brand extends from coast to coast, with operations in California, New England, Florida, and beyond. As of 2024, Speedway had around 3,000 gas stations in the United States.

In the summer of 2020, Marathon Petroleum announced it had reached a deal with Seven & i Holdings to sell off the Speedway gas station chain for $21 billion, though Marathon continues to supply fuel to the Speedway stations through a 15-year agreement at around 7.7 billion gallons of gasoline per year. Marathon also has a deal to supply fuel for other 7-Eleven gas stations. Marathon Petroleum, meanwhile, continues to have other retail gas station operations through its network of Marathon and ARCO-branded stations across the United States.

The other party in the 7-Eleven-Speedway relationship grew from humble origins in 1920s Texas to being one of America's most prominent roadside convenience stores and fuel stations. Seven & i Holdings brought the first 7-Eleven stores to Japan in the 1970s, with thousands of locations coming in the following decades as "konbini" — which is what convenience stores are known by in Japan – became a staple of the country. Today, 7-Eleven and other convenience stores are beloved by visitors to Japan for their wealth of high-quality and affordable food items. 

In 2005, things came full circle with America's 7-Eleven Inc. becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of 7-Eleven Japan. While many 7-Eleven stores around the country already had fuel services, the 2020 Speedway acquisition greatly grew the company's roadside gas station presence. And though the Speedway gas station stores continue to operate under its own brand name following the Japanese acquisition, gas station stores have become increasingly tied to the larger 7-Eleven corporate strategy and foodservice presence. 

The trend of the Speedway stores becoming increasingly "7-Eleven-ized" follows a larger movement of gas stations all across the country growing into larger and more profitable convenience stores that often blur the boundaries between a traditional roadside store and larger grocery stores and restaurants. Given the popularity and experience of the 7-Eleven brand in Japan, America, and around the world, the Speedway acquisition is starting to look like the right move at the right time.