Tom Love, who became a billionaire by founding American truck-stop chain Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, which has 600 locations in 42 states, has died.
He was 85. Love’s branched into restaurants in the 1990s with the opening of a Taco Bell Express at an Oklahoma City location. It later added tire-repair shops and hotels to the growing list of amenities offered at some of its pit stops.
Love’s is now the largest business of its kind still fully in family hands. The Haslam and Call families, founders of the Pilot Flying J truck stop chain, agreed in 2017 to sell 80% of the business to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. over six years.
Tom Love’s cause of death: How did Tom Love die?
Tom Love, died on Tuesday in his hometown of Oklahoma City after an extended illness, the company announced.
Love’s sun-yellow signs featuring cartoonish hearts are a fixture of highways throughout the US, offering a spot to refuel, get food, and even repair tires. The company originated with a single gas station, which Love grew to a chain of 40 before the oil embargoes of the 1970s forced him to seek ways to diversify his revenue stream.
