Who Owns 7-Eleven?

7-Eleven's origins trace back to 1927 in Dallas, Texas, when an enterprising Southland Ice Company employee named John Jefferson Green began selling basic food items from the front of an ice house. With permission from one of Southland's founding directors, Joe C. Thompson Sr., Green expanded this concept to other ice house storefronts. Recognizing the business potential, Thompson eventually purchased the Southland Ice Company and transformed it into the Southland Corporation, establishing the foundational concept of providing everyday necessities in convenient locations to reduce customer travel.

In 1928, a store manager named Jenna Lira placed an Alaskan totem pole in front of her location as a distinctive marketing element. The totem poles proved so effective at attracting attention that executives soon installed them at all locations, leading to the adoption of the name "Tote'm Stores." That same year, the company began its strategic diversification by experimenting with gasoline sales at some Dallas locations. Thompson also implemented standardized training and uniforms, establishing the consistency that would become a hallmark of the brand.

During the Great Depression of the early 1930s, Southland narrowly avoided bankruptcy through financial restructuring and the intervention of Dallas banker W.W. Overton Jr., who helped stabilize the company by purchasing its bonds. This period of adversity resulted in ownership shifting to a board of directors who would guide the company through its post-Depression recovery. In 1946, in a pivotal rebranding decision, the stores were renamed "7-Eleven" to reflect their unprecedented extended operating hours from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., establishing a naming convention that would become synonymous with convenience retail worldwide.

The 1960s marked a period of significant operational innovation and expansion. In 1963, a 7-Eleven location in Austin, Texas, began operating around the clock in response to customer demand during a university all-night study session, launching the 24-hour convenience store concept that would later become standard practice. The same year, the company acquired 126 Speedee Mart franchised stores in California, marking its entry into the franchise business model that would fuel its subsequent rapid growth. By 1968, the company had signed its first area licensing agreement with Garb-Ko, Inc. of Saginaw, Michigan, establishing the domestic licensing framework that would later extend internationally.

The late 1980s brought serious financial challenges when the Thompson family initiated a management buyout to avoid a hostile takeover. The $5.2 billion leveraged buyout, completed in December 1987, was complicated by the stock market crash that same year. The resulting debt burden forced Southland to sell numerous assets between 1987 and 1990, including the Chief Auto Parts chain, its ice division, and hundreds of store locations. These divestitures resulted in 7-Eleven losing market presence in many metropolitan areas to competing convenience chains.

Facing unsustainable debt, Southland Corporation filed a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 1990, resulting in Ito-Yokado (a Japanese retail conglomerate) gaining 70% control of the company. Southland emerged from bankruptcy in March 1991 following a $430 million cash infusion from Ito-Yokado and Seven-Eleven Japan, while the founding Thompson family retained just 5% ownership. In 1999, reflecting its strategic focus, Southland Corporation officially changed its name to 7-Eleven, Inc. The acquisition process concluded in 2005 when Seven-Eleven Japan (by then part of the newly formed Seven & i Holdings) made a tender offer that converted 7-Eleven, Inc. into its wholly owned subsidiary.

The 21st century has seen 7-Eleven pursue aggressive expansion under Japanese ownership. In 2020, the company significantly expanded its North American footprint by acquiring Speedway's convenience store business for $21 billion. In 2021, 7-Eleven launched its largest advertising campaign in years, investing $70 million to highlight the evolution of its store format and food offerings beyond traditional convenience fare. In 2025, Seven & i Holdings announced plans to spin off its North American 7-Eleven operations into a separately traded public entity by the end of 2026, signaling the next major chapter in the brand's corporate evolution.