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When , joined the company in 2022, it had one travel center, zero quick-service restaurants, four convenience stores and 115 employees. As of October 2024, the company has 22 travel centers, 43 quick-service restaurants, 40 convenience stores and nearly 2,000 employees.

Recently, Johnson and t, were in Texas, acquiring nine travel centers in 90 days. 鈥淲e have a team that travels with us. We have our food team. We have our chief truck stop team. We have our construction team,鈥� Johnson explained. 鈥淲e come in with about 50 individuals.鈥�

The team descends on new locations, painting the exterior, remodeling bathrooms and showers, cleaning, flipping them over to the new point of sale system, and doing anything else needed to bring the location into the LV Petroleum family of travel centers, which are TravelCenters of America franchises.

Focusing on Food
Food is a core part of every location, and LV Petroleum determines the right mix by looking at what is already at the site and in the area. 鈥淚f that brand is strong enough, we leave it there, but if it is crispy crunchy chicken, we will look at doing something different,鈥� Johnson said.

Most locations ultimately have three QSR brands inside, depending on the layout. For example, the site in Lamar, Colorado, has a Dunkin Donuts, Charleys Cheesesteak and KFC.

Today, the company has partnerships with 22 QSR brands, including Wingstop, Einstein Bagels, Hardee鈥檚, Bojangles, Firehouse Subs, Cinnabon, Arby鈥檚, Jimmy Johns and more. 鈥淎bout half of those have come into our portfolio through acquisitions. The rest of them, we’ve built through partnerships and relationships built,鈥� Davis said.

Davis has also focused on creating partnerships with brands that have yet to be in the travel center space. “We put the first Del Taco into a travel center,鈥� she explained.

Davis was the first to bring Bojangles to locations in the west. “They weren’t even considering it, but we agreed to a very large development,” she said, adding that LV Petroleum now has 53 Bojangles on its books, including standalone QSRs.

As part of the decision-making process, Davis said she works with the mayor and city officials to learn more about what the community wants. 鈥淲e go with that brand partner because if we have the right one and the community is waiting on it, the people are there when we open the door,鈥� she said.

Tapping Into Proprietary Offerings
Adding QSR brands can take six weeks to a year. To help bridge that gap, Davis created Miss J鈥檚 Caf茅. 鈥淚 have my own proprietary food program that we roll out in the travel centers because, from the time we hang the TA sign, I have to be serving food,鈥� she explained, adding that in some locations, the proprietary brand does so well, they leave it.

Each Miss J’s Caf茅 menu is unique based on its location, but every site focuses on speed. “The drivers are all about being quick in and out,” Davis said.

Menus include breakfast and lunch sandwiches that are ready for grab-and-go. 鈥淚n the morning, I also do a big breakfast with three eggs, choice of meat, hash browns, biscuits and gravy,鈥� Davis said. 鈥淎t lunch, we have the grab and go, but I also do a meat and two, so I have certain proteins that I cook every day.鈥�

One of the top sellers is a two-piece fish dinner that comes with two pieces of fish, hush puppies, a side, and cornbread or a dinner roll. Davis said she changes the menu based on the area.

Going Beyond Food
In addition to strong food offerings, the locations have showers, laundry facilities, driver lounges, truck parking and . The company is also adding three truck service centers and three truck washes to its locations.

As part of the store offerings, Johnson said he looks for things that will make each location unique. If products work well, he’ll roll them out nationwide.

That鈥檚 what he did with freeze-dried candy from a small, local company in Norwood, Missouri. 鈥淚 was sitting at a store we were taking over, and I’m watching people come in and buy this freeze-dried candy four and five bags at a time. It was unbelievable,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淣ow they鈥檙e in there almost in 30 different locations of ours.鈥�

Another vendor was selling Spanish candy, which Johnson added to one location on a spinner rack after an employee taste test. It was successful, so he rolled it out to more locations, and it was a hit for 18 months.

Putting Employees First
Customers, whether they’re professional drivers or the local public, are looking for clean stores, clean restrooms and great employees.

LV Petroleum aims to retain all employees at the locations it acquires and incentivizes them to stay by offering benefits and increasing wages, if necessary. Johnson said he and Davis have worked in various positions within travel centers throughout their careers, which helps them relate to the front-line employees at the locations.

鈥淛eanette and I have been those employees before. We were the cashiers, we were the stockers, we were the porters who cleaned the restrooms. We were the site GMs, so we don鈥檛 lose focus on what our teams do every day,鈥� Johnson said.

Getting Involved
Becoming part of the community is important to the company, and the first thing Johnson does is get signed up with the local Chamber of Commerce. Then, he looks at how the company can support important causes in the areas it operates.

LV Petroleum donated $25,000 worth of bulletproof vests in Lamar, Colorado. In Garden City, Kansas, the company helped the local community college bring back its mascot after 30 years and get matching sweatsuits and travel gear for its football team.

Continuing to Expand
The company is currently opening additional locations in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. 鈥淥ur growth is just as strong for the next two years as it was for the first two years,鈥� Johnson said.

LV Petroleum has an acquisitions team that determines which markets the company will enter. 鈥淥ur goal once we come to an area is to try to get two, three, four or five locations in that area,鈥� Johnson said.