Kum and Go is selling to Maverik. Here's what to know about the deal

Salt Lake City-based convenience store chain Maverik announced Friday it's buying Des Moines-based convenience store chain Kum & Go.

Here's what we know about the deal.

Maverik operates 380 gas station/convenience stores across 12 states, mainly in the West. In addition to gas, it sells foods like gourmet burritos, sandwiches, pizzas, subs, cookies and coffee. Many of its stores have western themes. The chain was founded in 1928 by Reuel Call, who purchased two barrels of fuel with money he made renting out roller skates.

Call started his first gas station in Afton, Wyoming. In 1954 he named his business Maverik after ending an affiliation with a national gas station chain.

A relative, Jay Call, founded the Flying J truck stop chain. Jay Call's children in 2012 acquired the Maverik chain.

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The companies didn't reveal the sale price.

Maverik is a subsidiary of convenience store and hotel chain holding company FJ Management, based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Maverik has stores in:

CEO Chuck Maggelet was educated at the Harvard Business School. He has been the CEO of Maverik since 2016. His wife Crystal, daughter of late Flying J founder Jay Call and also a Harvard grad, is CEO of FJ Management.

More:Kum & Go sells to Maverik convenience store chain from Utah

Rating the best of convenience store cuisine in 2019, Food & Wine, a title of DotDash Meredith, ranked Maverik seventh in the nation, right behind Casey's General Stores (it ranked Kum & Go 14th). It wrote that Maverik "is the closest we'll likely ever get to an REI-themed convenience store, and, of course, it's headquartered in Utah. Everything about this place says get outdoors; their rewards program is even called the Adventure Club. But you don't have to be on your way to crush it at Moab to belong, you just have to be hungry for breakfast tacos, pretty darned good ones at that, skillet meals, and some rather excellent raspberry fritters."

Kum & Go was founded by Bill Krause and his father-in-law T.S. Gentle in 1959 with a single Hampton gas station named Hampton Oil Co. Gradually they began selling convenience store items and food as well as gas. In the 1970s the name Kum & Go was adopted.

In January 2021 Tanner Krause became CEO of Kum & Go, the fourth generation Krause family member to hold that title, succeeding his father Kyle, who remains CEO of the Krause Group, owner of Kum & Go and other businesses.

"Kum & Go has always been driven by a desire to innovate, grow and serve our customers, our communities and our people. Maverik has built its business in the same way and is ideally positioned to lead the next chapter of growth for Kum & Go," Kyle Krause said Friday in a news release.

More:How new Kum & Go CEO Tanner Krause is investing in people and social justice — and still turning a profit

Based in Des Moines, Kum & Go employs more than 5,000 people at 400 stores in 13 states from Arkansas to Montana.

Kum & Go has annual revenues of $3 billion and was 184th-largest private company in the United States last year, according to Forbes,

Maverik said in a news release that it will have "a combined footprint of over 800 units across 20 states, meeting evolving needs of a broader customer base of existing and new customers."

Given that Maverik also sells pizza, it will undoubtedly continue to be one of the chain's offerings. But important questions ― including whether Kum & Go will be rebranded, whether its food offerings will be reformulated, and maybe most important of all, which one has the best pizza ― remain to be answered.

Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, [email protected] or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.