Type Subsidiary Website www.superamerica.com Founded 1960 | Number of locations 278 Founder Elmer Erickson | |
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Industry Retail (convenience stores) Headquarters Woodbury, Minnesota, United States Key people David L. Lamp, President and CEO Parent organizations Western Refining, Northern Tier Energy LP | ||
SuperAmerica is a chain of gasoline stations in the upper Midwest, based in Woodbury, Minnesota. It is owned by Western Refining. The first convenience store opened in the 1960s. The company offers a rewards program for customers called "My SA Rewards."
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History
SuperAmerica convenience stores first opened in the 1960s in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They were first operated by Northwestern Refining of St. Paul Park, Minnesota. Stations were primarily located in the upper Midwest, as well as Florida.
Ashland Petroleum purchased Northwestern Refining and the SuperAmerica chain in the 1970s. Ashland had marketed full-service stations under its own "Ashland" brand. As self-service was legalized, it used the brands "Solo", "Save Mart", "Save More", and "Rich", along with others. Ashland converted most of its outlets in its core territory to "SuperAmerica", while withdrawing from Florida. It maintained a few outlets under its other brand names to keep the trademarks valid.
In 1997, Marathon and Ashland Petroleum merged, forming 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 to form Speedway SuperAmerica LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of MAP. SuperAmerica stores outside the upper midwest were rebranded as Speedway.
In 2004 Marathon bought out Ashland's share. In February 2011, Marathon sold its SuperAmerica stores to Northern Tier Energy, a newly formed company backed by the private equity firms ACON Investments and TPG Capital. Today Speedway and SuperAmerica are unrelated chains. SuperAmerica stores has 284 stores located with 271 in Minnesota, 11 in Wisconsin and 2 in South Dakota. Northern Tier Energy went public in 2012. In 2013, Western Refining bought a controlling stake in Northern Tier Energy. The Marathon refinery in St. Paul Park, Minnesota was sold in 2010 to Northern Tier Energy, along with the SuperAmerica convenience store chain, separating it from Speedway. Speedway was subsequently renamed Speedway LLC. The company is a sponsor of the Twin Cities Auto Show.
In 2015, employees protested at the corporate headquarters in Woodbury, Minnesota to lobby against low hourly wages and erratic employee scheduling.
Rewards programs
SuperAmerica maintains a rewards program for customers called "My SA Rewards." Points in the program are redeemable for discounts in gasoline purchase or on other purchases in stores. The rewards program offers 3 cents off per gallon of gasoline. From 2011 to 2016, the company accepted the coupons of competitors gas coupons. The company also offers its own credit card to reduce cost of gasoline by 5 cents per gallon. The credit card is offered to customers in partnership with the bank First Bankcard.