Landmark Industries/Timewise

Landmark Industries has been in business more than 25 years, with its first convenience store opened in 1982 in Hempstead, Texas. The partners credit a fortune cookie with getting them started. As the story goes, the four were at dinner, and the fortune said something like, “You will do well on your own.” They thought, "Why not?" and bought their first store.

Landmark Industries owns and operates 228 stores and distributes fuel to more than 200 additional dealer locations and other sites in and around Houston, San Antonio and Austin. All company-owned locations are called Timewise Food Stores. New locations built from the ground up are larger, averaging 5,000 square feet. This allows the chain to add more high-margin items to the stores.

Each store has unique attributes with inventory that serves the market for each location. In Houston, for example, the company takes a "country store" approach and has stores near residential areas. Other locations are in more rural areas that may require different inventory, such as more grocery items, dairy products or take-home foods.