Hess to Speedway Conversion Speeding Along in Florida

ENON, Ohio — Speedway LLC's long process of converting Hess convenience stores to its brand has begun. According to the South Florida Business Journal, Speedway has already converted 60 Florida Hess locations.

On May 22, Speedway acquired 1,256 Hess Retail Holdings LLC locations at a price tag of $2.87 billion. Florida accounts for nearly 20 percent of the locations acquired (248 stores).

Store conversions began in mid-November. All Florida locations will be converted to Speedway locations by March, a spokesperson told the news outlet. The c-store chain chose to rebrand in Florida first due to favorable weather conditions during the winter months.

Speedway closes five stores a day and reopens them the following day with all Speedway goods and equipment, reported radio station The Fox 106.3 FM. Teams of 20 people work from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. the following day to complete the remodels, the radio outlet added. Hess employees also are being retrained to work in their new Speedway stores.

As CSNews Online previously reported, terms of the acquisition state that all 1,256 Hess locations in 14 states must be converted to the Speedway brand by the end of 2017.

Enon-based Speedway LLC — a division of Marathon Petroleum Corp. — operates approximately 2,740 convenience stores in 22 states.