BOILING SPRINGS, S.C. -- QuikTrip--which just celebrated its 53rd anniversary--is opening its first store in South Carolina today as the convenience chain ventures into the Carolinas, according to a report by the Tulsa World.
The store, in Boiling Springs, a suburb of Spartanburg in the northern part of the state, is the first of an expansion into the Carolinas.
The Tulsa, Okla.-based company has nine other stores under construction in the area, said the report.
QuikTrip also plans to open a store in the Charlotte, N.C., in February or March of 2012, company spokesperson Mike Thornbrugh told the newspaper.
"QuikTrip announced a little over a year ago that we would begin operations in South Carolina," company president and CEO Chet Cadieux in a statement obtained by the paper. "We are absolutely thrilled that day has actually come."
The stores are entirely new construction. Thornbrugh said the company does not acquire competing convenience stores.
The stores are intended to complement more than 100 stores QuikTrip has in Atlanta, said the report.
QuikTrip also has a distribution warehouse and a QT Kitchens food preparation facility in Atlanta, both of which will ship merchandise to new stores in the Carolinas.
QuikTrip has 582 stores in 10 states, including Dallas, Phoenix, Kansas City and St. Louis.
For more on how aggressive growth--both in new-builds and acquisitions--are changing the competitive landscape, check out the October 2011 cover feature of CSP magazine (see Related Content, below).
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