Kwik Trip plans to have double-digit growth in stores in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, its CEO said recently.
“Our thoughts are to have 16 to 20 locations within that area, and you have to have enough stores to start out with to make sense from a business perspective and a delivery perspective,” CEO Scott Zietlow said during an opening in Kingsford, Michigan, earlier this month, reported WLUC-TV6.
Kwik Trip, which according to its store locator has about six Upper Peninsula locations, opened a new Upper Peninsula store in October, in Iron Mountain, followed by the Kingsford location.
Its first Michigan location, in Ironwood, also in the Upper Peninsula, opened in September 2022. The c-store chain also has approval for a store at a former Camping World site in Ishpeming, Michigan, a Kwik Trip spokesperson, David Niemi, told CSP. There is no time frame on this or the other locations Zietlow mentioned, Niemi said.
- Kwik Trip is No. 11 on CSP’s 2023 Top 202 ranking of convenience store chains by store count.
Kwik Trip also is planning to enter North Dakota, which will be the company’s seventh state, with two locations in Fargo, Goldmark Commercial Real Estate said recently on its Facebook page.
These will be the La Crosse, Wisconsin-based convenience-store chain’s first locations in the Rough Rider State. One location is on 3.92 acres, the other 4.72 acres, according to Fargo-based Goldmark’s social media posts. It did not give opening dates.
Fargo, with more than 128,000 people, is the largest city in North Dakota, and the nearest Kwik Trip is about 160 miles away in Minnesota.
The company also has locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin under the Kwik Trip banner and stores in Illinois, Iowa and South Dakota under the Kwik Star name. The first South Dakota store opened Sept. 21 in Brandon.
La Crosse, Wisconsin-based Kwik Trip opened its first store in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in 1965. It has about 800 locations under the Kwik Trip and Kwik Star flags. One of the biggest independently held c-store chains in the country, it produces more than 80% of the products sold in its stores, which are supplied by its own bakery, commissary, dairy and distribution center.
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