Maverik, which purchased the Iowa-based Kum & Go convenience store chain from Krause Group in April 2023 for an undisclosed amount, will reportedly rebrand all its stores to eliminate the sophomorically amusing banner name. In a statement to the Des Moines Register, a company spokesperson said Maverik is “in the process of rebranding Kum & Go stores, with the intent to unify our entire combined footprint under the Maverik brand.”
The Register also reported that in August 2023, when the acquisition was finalized, Maverik CEO Chuck Maggelet had said the retailer would rebrand the Kum & Go stores in Idaho, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming — the four states where both chains operated stores — but that he was open to maintaining the Kum & Go name elsewhere.
“It could happen,” Maggelet was quoted as saying at that time. “I don’t know. I think we’ll learn an awful lot when we do these first 120, 130, 140 stores. I think it will help us form an opinion. We are very much prepared to operate as two different brands. So we know we can go either direction, but we think we’re going to be focusing on rebranding, learning from it and then if it makes sense maybe pushing a little further east.”
At the time of the acquisition, Maverik operated nearly 400 stores across 12 western states, while Kum & Go had more than 400 stores in 13 midwestern and western states.
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What’s in a Name?
Kum & Go was founded by Bill Krause and his father-in-law T.S. Gentle as Hampton Oil Co. in 1959 as a single gas station. The business expanded and took on the Kum & Go name in the 1970s, according to the Register. Krause, who died in 2013, told the newspaper that the “K” stood for Krause and the “G” stood for Gentle. “I chose the name that had the fewest number of letters so the signs would be cheaper,” he is quoted as saying. “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.”
Kum & Go introduced a new mobile app touting personalized features along with its new “&Rewards” loyalty program in August 2023. At press time Maverik had not responded to a request for comment.
