Jet-Pep Inc.

Jet Pep loves its independence. The company handles its own distribution and fields a privately branded fuel offering.

With a network of stores across Alabama, the company relies on a dealer-lessee network to operate the stores. Though strongest in central Alabama, Jet Pep branched into the western portion in 2005 with an acquisition of a former Crown station in Tuscaloosa, and then a deal for two more stores in 2009, that now operate under the Jet Pep name.

The chain features seven car washes, and some of the sites include QSR restaurants, including four KFCs and one Church’s Chicken. Sixty stores offer deli sandwiches from various vendors.

Jet Pep owns the real estate and supplies the fuels and maintains the pumps at all locations. It leases the stores and operations to dealers. Stores are located mostly in rural areas and attracts blue-collar workers.