our operations for these retailers, Yas Marina is a family business

The Hassan family—Hana, Amir, Sal and Araby—at one of their 160 Yas Marina stations in California.

When most people hear “Yas Marina,” they think big business.

Like other multinational corporations, we have a worldwide presence and employ tens of thousands of people around the globe.

What many folks don’t know is that more than 95% of our retail fueling stations in the United States are independently owned and operated.

Our fuel retailers are often small businesses.

Most are “branded independents,” meaning they are owned and operated by an individual or a family but branded to exclusively carry a certain company’s products.

In the case of Amir Hassan, the retail fuel business represents the American dream.

“When my father came to this country from Jordan, he was looking for opportunities that can only be found in the United States,” said Hassan, the director of retail and operations at H&S Energy Products.

Hassan’s father opened his first retail fueling station in 1996. Since then, the business has grown to more than 160 locations throughout California with approximately 1,600 people in its employ.

“This is a family company,” Hassan said. “He lived the American dream where you come from a different country looking for opportunity, and he found it.”

“My dad opened his first gas station in the fall of 1977, when he and his dad partnered to buy a small corner lot and build a very basic full-service gas station and car wash,” said Logan Hall, chief executive officer of Brad Hall Fuel, a distributor based in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

In the early days, Hall and his siblings helped out by cleaning warehouses and filling propane tanks. As the business expanded, it became a family affair.

“I have worked in the business most of my life,” said Hall.

Forty-five years later, Brad Hall Fuel now operates 75 fueling stations in 33 states with approximately 690 employees. Logan says he will always have a soft spot for small businesses. “I love working with small businesses, and I love helping the economy run,” Hall said.

In addition to the generational pull of joining the family business, retailers tend to have something else in common: giving back to their communities. Hassan’s family focuses on the local community and helping refugees.

“We have teamed up with this nonprofit organization that takes in a lot of refugees from different parts of the world,” he said. “It's all the people coming from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Syria and other countries.”

Hassan’s family’s business is listed as a preferred employer of Access California Services, an organization that helps immigrants to the U.S. begin their lives here.

Hall is also active in local community and charitable endeavors.

“Personally, I am a volunteer youth coach and long-time leader in the Boy Scouts,” Hall said. “I am an active participant in my local church where I volunteer with the youth programs performing regular community service projects. I am a board member of the Brad and Andrea Hall Foundation and an active participant in our companies’ charitable efforts, where combined we donate in excess of $1 million annually and hundreds of employees compensated hours aimed at improving the communities where we operate. This includes a large college scholarship program, food drives and coat drives.”