OGDEN — Flying J is soaring high these days. The Ogden-based company now ranks No. 46 among Forbes' 500 largest private companies in America, with last year's sales exceeding $4.2 billion.
The only larger private company in Utah is Huntsman Chemicals at No. 15.
With more than 10,000 employees and 156 travel/fuel plazas in 39 states and two Canadian provinces, Flying J is the largest retail distributor of diesel fuel in North America. It also has 30 travel plazas now under construction that will open within the next two years.
Flying J recently moved its corporate offices from Brigham City to Ogden — at 4185 Harrison Blvd., just southwest of Weber State University. In Utah, the company has 18 gas stations, from Logan to Brigham City.
The company has come a long way since its founding by O. Jay Call, born in Star Valley, Wyo., and raised in Soda Springs, Idaho. Howard M. Carlisle, a Utah State University emeritus professor of business management, has written a new book, "The Flying J Story," highlighting the company's history. The book will be sold at Flying J's later this summer.
Carlisle said Call helped operate his father's family gas station in Soda Springs and later owned his first station in Willard. He then launched gas stations in Ontario, Ore.; Lewiston, Idaho; and California to avoid direct competition with an uncle, Reuel Call, who started the Maverik Country Store chain.
By 1968, Call was back in Ogden with four retail gas stations in a small petroleum marketing company. Call delved into real estate in the early 1970s, and that helped him secure some solid financial footing. He went into the convenience store business, but having some experience as a truck driver himself, decided to focus on the needs of the truck driver and interstate travelers.
The first Flying J Plaza opened in Ogden during 1978. The plazas combine convenience stores, full-service 24-hour restaurants, laundries, lodging, truck scales, drivers' lounges and fast-food courts.
Flying J is a welcome site for many truckers.
"Their fuel is cheapest," said Kerry Recer of Dallas, a DMR truck driver, as he drove through Ogden earlier this month and stopped at that first-ever Flying J, near 21st Street. "I don't have to shop around for the best price when there's a Flying J around."
Recer also likes the ample parking the 20- to 25-acre travel plazas usually provide, but he's not sold on their in-house restaurants being all that good.
Dale Beckstead of Willard, Box Elder County, drives for Access West Trucking and also likes Flying J for its inexpensive fuel prices. "I'd like more variety in their restaurants," he said, however.
Beckstead also doesn't think some of the Flying J Plazas have enough truck parking but believes that's an industry-wide truck stop problem.
He also feels he's free to speak his mind because he personally knows Call from when he had his first-ever gas station in Willard. "Jay, he's a good old boy," Beckstead said.
On a mid-June Saturday morning, there are several dozen trucks at this original Flying J. Even car and motor home owners are attracted to the Flying J for its low fuel prices, and there's not an open, marked parking place left in front of the station.
Contrary to what some believe, Carlisle said, Call used the name "Flying J" more as a ranch-oriented image rather than because his No. 1 hobby is flying airplanes.
Carlisle said Call is a great example of an entrepreneur who was able to build an extremely successful company from scratch.
"Leadership and a lot of technology," Carlisle said, are two key components for the company's success. Express Pay cardreaders made fueling automated starting in 1994.
"They have their own credit system. Truckers have a frequent fueler program with Flying J," he said. Indeed, some 1.9 million drivers belong to the frequent fueler program, which started in 1987. Regular motorists can also join a "Rewards" frequent fueler program
"The Flying J strategy is always to be the most efficient with premium facilities," Carlisle said. "They can underprice the competition." He also said acquisitions of other fuel companies helped spur its growth.
Rumors are the company is now poised for some international expansion. Still, Flying J has a lack of recognition in Utah, Carlisle said, because the largest of the company's travel plazas are out of state, including those in Texas and the Midwest.
Flying J's transportation team is made up of 600 professional drivers and 230 trucks. Each month, this fleet hauls more than 245 million gallons of fuel. In addition, Big West Oil is a wholly owned subsidiary of Flying J and has 130 employees. It is capable of refining more than a million gallons of fuel a day at its refinery in North Salt Lake.
Flying J Oil & Gas Inc., another branch of the company, has interest in 900 oil and gas wells in six Rocky Mountain states.
Flying J also has an extensive Web site, and part of it includes a full list of all its locations and current fuel prices, updated several times a day — www.flyingj.com/fuel/gasoline_CF.cfm.
Part of the credit for the company's success goes to J. Phillip Adams, Flying J president and chief executive officer, who has orchestrated the low pricing and hospitality themes of the business.
When Adams joined Flying J as a manager in its accounting department, the company had fewer than 500 employees and $90 million in annual sales. He succeeded Call as president in 1990.
"I personally have never seen a time when we have had more opportunities in front of us and available to explore in all of our operating segments," Adams said. "Compared to what the future holds, you haven't seen anything yet."
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com