Sprint Mart, headquartered in Ridgeland, Miss., is taking a multifaceted approach to growth, methodically increasing its footprint through small acquisitions while refreshing legacy stores to meet modern consumer demands.
The chain is also selectively razing and rebuilding older sites into large-footprint stores with state-of-the-art designs and a focus on its proprietary Chix and Sprintzoni foodservice programs. At the same time, Sprint Mart is expanding its proprietary gas brand to new builds, rolling out self-checkout and extending special loyalty benefits to professional drivers, further enhancing the customer experience.
A Family-Owned Business
Sprint Mart was founded in 1992 by cousins Charles Morris and Joe Morris in Ridgeland, Miss.
Charles Morris and Joe Morris were third generation oil marketers, who, along with their fathers, started Morris Petroleum. They converted many of their leased dealer stores to the Sprint Mart brand and then quickly expanded with the purchase of an additional 12 Speedway stores, which they also converted to the Sprint Mart brand.
Meanwhile, Joe Gillis founded Dutch Oil Co. in 1972, and his son, Rex Gillis, joined the family-business in the 1980s.
“In 2000 a joint, venture, “Victory Marketing LLC,” was created between the Morris family (Morris Petroleum) and Joe Gillis and Rex Gillis (Dutch Oil) of Columbus, Miss.,” explained Herb Hargraves, chief operating officer (COO) of Sprint Mart. “At that time, all Gillis-owned Dutch Mart stores were rebranded as Sprint Mart.” The joint venture also purchased more than 20 stores owned by J.P. Mills Inc. in Tupelo, Miss. in 2000.
Charles Morris, Joe Morris, Joe Gillis, Rex Gillis and Rex’s son-in-law, Matt Bogue, are all joint owners of Victory Marketing today. Today, Charles Morris serves as principal manager of Victory Marketing. Joe Morris serves as president of Morris Petroleum. Rex serves as CEO of Dutch Oil and Matt Bogue serves as president of Dutch Oil.
Over the years, Sprint Mart has grown through acquisitions and new builds. One notable acquisition came in 2021, when Sprint Mart purchased 31 MinitMan Food stores in the north Alabama market. Today it operates 94 c-stores and counting across Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.
Hargraves joined Sprint Mart as COO in 2023 after a long history in the industry that included executive and operations roles with MAPCO and Clark Oil Co., Cash Magic and Cumberland Farms.
Having worked for both family-run and corporate organization, Hargraves was attracted to the position at Sprint Mart because he knew he could “bring the best of both worlds” to his role by applying “a little more corporate efficiency to a family-run organization,” while still preserving the chain’s “family-run autonomy.” He’s played a pivotal role in shaping Sprint Mart’s strategic growth initiatives over the past three years and improving overall operational excellence, efficiencies and technological advancement for the chain.
Store Transformations
A major focus for Sprint Mart today is the modernization of its legacy stores, aligning them with current customer expectations while creating space for foodservice offerings. Occasionally that means a full tear down and rebuild to accommodate an upscale design with extensive amenities.
The chain recently completed two extensive raze and rebuilds, one in Tupelo, Miss., in 2024 and one in Fulton, Miss., in 2025.
“The latest in Fulton opened in September of 2025. It is a travel plaza that spans (14,000) square feet with 32 fueling positions in the forecourt, high-flow diesel pumps in the back and expansive 18-wheeler parking in the rear,” Hargraves, explained.
The Fulton travel plaza is situated just off of 1-22 between Birmingham, Ala., and Memphis, Tenn., and has been one of the chain’s highest grossing sites for more than 25 years. After acquiring an adjacent property, the chain was able to vastly expand the footprint of the newly built store.
Sprint Mart’s goal with the Fulton store design was to offer customers the highest convenience experience possible. The store features a foodservice-minded layout, 15-foot high ceilings, an 80-foot radiused checkout counter, six traditional checkout lanes, and a staffed three-lane self-checkout area in the center of the store, as well as oversized restrooms, which it calls its “BESTrooms.”
“We do not call our bathrooms ‘restrooms,’ we call them our BESTrooms. We do this because we take our bathrooms seriously,” Hargraves said. “We know how important a clean, well-lit, well-stocked restroom is for our customers. In our BESTRooms we have tongue-and-groove wood ceilings, ample lighting to create an inviting atmosphere and our team keeps them meticulously clean.”
The Fulton site’s BESTrooms include a total of 29 toilets, 10 urinals and two private family restrooms, allowing it to manage heavy restroom traffic.
The Fulton store was honored with a Best Store Design Award from CStore Decisions in 2026.
Meanwhile, the Tupelo store, situated at the corner of Barnes Crossing and North Gloster, marked the third Sprint Mart site in Tupelo to undergo a raze-and-rebuild. Because it was one of the chain’s busiest locations, the company kept the original Sprint Mart on the property open while it constructed the new Sprint Mart behind it.
The construction took longer than usual because it included the installation of all new fueling stations with additional pumps and tanks. The site opened in November of 2024 with a footprint four-times the size of the store it replaced, and Sprint-Mart branded gas.
“A typical Sprint Mart can span from 4,500 square-feet to our largest in Vance, Ala., which is 16,800 square feet and offers our first full-service restaurant Sadie’s Diner,” Hargraves said.
Sprint Mart stores are designed with large front windows that provide a full view of the store’s interior. The exterior features an arch with pillars on either side, and the Sprint Mart logo above the arch. It prioritizes a timeless design that incorporates long-lasting materials such as brick on building exteriors, neutral color schemes for floors and walls, high ceilings and finishes that resist wear.
“We use earth tones and our signature blue with lighted channel letters identifying the sections of our store along with our BESTrooms signage and our signature tag line ‘Run with the BEST,’” Hargraves explained.
In the forecourt, the chain features Shell or Sprint Mart-branded fuel. The chain’s newly built sites feature its proprietary Sprint Mart gas brand.
Beyond fuel, Sprint Mart is finding other ways to enhance the customer experience, from electric vehicle (EV) charging and car washes to travel-plaza amenities and an ever-evolving merchandise mix.
“We have partnered with Tesla at three of our stores to offer EV charging,” Hargraves said, adding that the chain is exploring potentially adding EV to additional sites in the future. Two Sprint Marts offer standard pull-in car washes. The chain’s travel plazas offer dog parks with separate sections for small breed and large breed dogs.
The chain also features an expansive novelty section, that includes popular squishy items that have been trending on social media, which Hargraves noted have been a “huge hit” with customers.
Sprint Mart is also working on targeted remodels across the chain. At press time, it was underway on its plans to complete exterior refreshes on 19 sites in the Huntsville, Ala., market. One store is already completed with another three in progress. The refreshes include full forecourt painting, full painting of the building’s exterior and the addition of Sprint Mart channel-letter signage on the front facia. Sites with foodservice are receiving lit signage on the front exterior to signal that the store offers proprietary food brands Chix and/or Sprintzoni.
Moving into Q4 of 2026 and early 2027, Sprint Mart has two sites — one in Alabama and one in Mississippi — scheduled for expansion with full interior and exterior remodels.
Sprint Mart expects to have all of the remodels completed by mid-year in 2027.
As it remodels, it hasn’t taken its eyes off of acquisition opportunities. At press time, Sprint Mart was closing on the purchase of an Alabama store, which was anticipated to close on Oct. 1., and is set to take the chain’s store count to 95 locations.
“We will do a full exterior and interior refresh of this property before we reopen it as a Sprint Mart,” Hargraves explained.
Foodservice Expansion
Foodservice is a major focus for Sprint Mart going forward.
“Our flagship proprietary foodservice brand is our local favorite Chix chicken. Also, a year and a half ago, we launched our proprietary pizza brand Sprintzoni,” Hargraves said. Today, 46 sites feature the Chix program, while 24 offer the Sprintzoni pizza program.
“On our Chix offering, we are specifically known for having the largest double-breaded chicken tenders around, paired with our fan favorite: the JoJo, (which is) a fresh-sliced breaded potato wedge.”
Sprint Mart also features its proprietary Best Market brand at 44 stores, which includes cold grab-and-go sandwiches, salads, parfaits, cheesecake and fresh fruit.
Six of Sprint Mart’s smaller footprint locations offer a Chix Express concept, which offers non-fried items, such as the chain’s signature breakfast sandwiches, burgers and popular grab-and-go items.
The chain’s Vance, Ala. store features the chain’s Sadie’s Diner concept, which provides a “full homestyle sit-down-dining experience,” complete with a robust menu that includes the Sadie’s Burger, which is a local favorite.
One of the chain’s Columbus, Miss., stores features The Donut Factory, a quick-service restaurant (QSR) concept that serves fresh-made yeast and cake doughnuts, as well as muffins, cookies and pastries.
At two locations it partners with QSR chain Bullets Burgers Chicken & More, and at one location it features a Subway.
“All of our stores offer our proprietary blend Best Bean coffee and Finish Line fountain drinks, and at the majority of our stores we offer our frozen beverages that we call the Freeze Zone,” Hargraves said.
Sprint Mart is set to pilot DoorDash and Uber Eats delivery at one of its locations. “Once we perfect the process, we will expand to offer it at additional stores,” Hargraves said. Its Sadie’s Diner features order-ahead. It has two drive-thrus — one in Columbus, Miss., for its Bullets location, and the other at a site in Albertville, Ala., where customers can order from the Chix or Sprintzoni menus.
Tech Approach
Technology adoption remains a key priority for the chain. Sprint Mart features the Sprint Mart Rewards loyalty app, where registered customers receive discount offers, rollback at the pump pricing and can earn points on purchases. Customers can then redeem their points for nearly anything offered in-store or on fuel purchases.
“Our app is exclusive to our Sprint Mart Rewards customers (and allows them) to track their points and see all the offers available at their local Sprint Mart,” Hargraves said.
At the end of 2025, the chain launched a Professional Drivers Loyalty Card, that rewards professional drivers with points on diesel purchases.
“It offers two different levels with perks, such as free showers, free fountain and coffee, and exclusive ‘truckers-only discounts’ on the items they use most,” Hargraves said.
Now, Sprint Mart is adding self-checkout to all remodeled and razed-and-rebuilt sites, as well as in some legacy stores.
“To date, a quarter of our chain has self-checkout with pre-pay on fuel available for our customers who want to skip the line,” Hargraves said. “We have some that are not used that much and others that are very popular. We continue to evaluate the best option for our customers.”
Sprint Mart is also leveraging technology to improve operational efficiency, including digitizing store walk-through inspections, surveys and vendor relationship management.
Throughout the stores, centrally connected TV screens feature the Chix, Sprintzoni and coffee menus. Above the cold vault, the chain uses similar digital screens to highlight key vendor products and Sprint Mart Rewards promotions.
“All of these screens can be controlled remotely by our marketing department,” Hargraves explained.
The chain also recently deployed tablets to its fleet of stores, to make clocking in and out of shifts easier for team members. It also upgraded store assistant handhelds that are connected to the back-office system for store tasks and placing orders.
Looking Ahead
As Sprint Mart looks to the future, its primary avenue for growth will be through acquisitions, Hargraves confirmed. But as it sets its sites on continued expansion, it’s also keeping its legacy stores firmly in focus.
“We will continue to reinvest in our legacy stores with image upgrades and remodels to provide the best c-store experience for our customers,” Hargraves said.
Sprint Mart is also committed to continuing to train and develop its employees, while keeping up with technological advancements.
“We are a Christian based organization deeply rooted in our faith. We employ over 1,300 employees and our people are the true core of our culture,” Hargraves said. “I am so proud of how many long-tenured team members we have that have made their careers at Sprint Mart. We are intensely focused on growing our people with career pathing, so we can build future leaders from within.”
Sprint Mart’s mantra is “Take care of the customer and everything else takes care of itself,” which Hargraves said isn’t just a tagline. “It’s the backbone of who we are,” he said. “You feel it the moment you walk through our doors and hear a genuine ‘Welcome to Sprint Mart!’ from our team. We truly want every customer to feel at home. From the second you pull onto the lot to that final ‘Have the BEST day!’ at checkout, our commitment to hospitality comes straight from the heart.”
