3 Big Numbers is a weekly column that looks at a few key details from around the c-store industry.
After nearly six decades, the convenience store industry has reached the end of an era — Maverik confirmed this week that it has finished rebranding Kum & Go to its own banner.
This news has been inevitable ever since Maverik said last year that it planned to rebrand all locations. And while it said at the time that it would consider that decision carefully in a market-by-market approach, we have now seen Kum & Go’s last hurrah.
While this means Maverik can now focus all its attention on one unified banner, the end of Kum & Go will surely be upsetting for fans of the sunsetting brand.
In this week’s “3 Big Numbers,” we look back at Kum & Go’s history and impact on shoppers.
67
The number of years Kum & Go operated
The story of Kum & Go started in 1959, when W.A. Krause and T.S. Gentle founded what was then called Hampton Oil. The pair would grow their business from one Iowa location to dozens by the mid-1970s, when the company would adopt its infamous moniker.
Krause told the Des Moines Register in 1993 that the initials of the new name came from those of its founders — Krause & Gentle. But the actual name had a more pragmatic source.
"I chose the name that had the fewest number of letters so the signs would be cheaper," Krause told the paper.
While there was no avoiding the innuendo inherent in that name, Krause implied company leaders had learned to laugh along.
"I can bristle and be offended or I can look at the fact that 100,000 people a day come through the doors of Kum & Go," he said in that same interview.
400
The approximate number of stores Kum & Go had when it sold to Maverik.
After opening its first location in 1959, Kum & Go grew steadily throughout the ensuing decades. The company hit 65 locations in 1977 and passed the 130 point in the late 90s.
Kum & Go’s growth came from both new builds and M&A. For example, the company absorbed the 76-site Git-N-Go chain in 2004, reported the OU Daily.
By the time Maverik agreed to buy the banner, Kum & Go had around 400 locations — roughly the same number as Maverik. This generated a lot of attention because it’s rare for M&A on this scale to be undertaken by a company of similar stature.
1.75 million
The number of loyalty members Kum & Go had around the time of its sale.
Like many regional companies with a strong brand and big personality, Kum & Go had its ardent fans, and those fans engaged with the company in a variety of ways. The company built an irreverent social media team, and its merch line even made it to the movies.
Kum & Go had earned about 1.75 million loyalty members as of June 2023, when the company announced it would be updating its &Rewards loyalty program. With a footprint of about 400 locations at the time, that averages out to more than 4,000 loyalty members per location. For comparison, while Alimentation Couche-Tard is still expanding its Inner Circle rewards program, it currently averages out to less than half the number of members per store.
Put another way, people really liked Kum & Go, appellation and all.
“It’s hard to explain, much like dissecting a good joke ruins the humor; but over the past few years, wearing that Kum & Go shirt had become a vibe,” wrote Frank Beard in a column on Kum & Go’s legacy in early 2024.
“It was more than just a funny name.”
