OKLAHOMA CITY — Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores plans to open up to 40 stores and add about 3,000 parking spots and 2,500 jobs in 2020, the company said.
The announcement follows a year in which Love’s opened its 500th store and raised a record $3.75 million for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals during its annual campaign.
“We enter 2020 with lots of momentum that we’ll continue through customer-experience enhancements, product offerings and the best value on the road,” said Love’s President Shane Wharton. “We’ll open stores from coast to coast, continue to provide products and services that our customers depend upon and enhance our reputation as the company known for highway hospitality.”
In 2020, Love’s says it will:
- Open about 40 new Love’s Travel Stops.
- Continue to expand its fresh food offerings and Love’s-branded items.
- Continue to enhance the Love’s Connect mobile app with new features.
- Unveil a mobile app for Love’s Financial freight factoring service so customers can better manage cash flow and cover expenses such as fuel, maintenance and payroll without creating debt for their business.
- Add about 40 Love’s Truck Care Centers and Speedco facilities to surpass a total of 400 locations of the oil change and preventative maintenance network.
- Open new compressed natural gas (CNG), renewable natural gas (RNG), solar and hydrogen stations and add infrastructure throughout the United States through Trillium, Love’s provider of renewable fuels and alternative fueling solutions specializing in fuel supply, design, installation and operation.
- Open a sixth tire retread plant and distribution center in Milan, Tenn., in the first half of the year.
“We’ve listened to our customers to build a business that caters to what customers need beyond fuel, including factoring, maintenance and fresh-food options,” Wharton said. “We’ll continue listening so we can grow that mindset into the future.”
- For more details on Love’s growth plans, check out CSP’s 2020 Power 20 feature in the January issue. Love’s Executive Vice President and Chief Culture Officer Jenny Love Meyer is among the deal makers and growth strategists profiled on this year’s list.
Family-owned Love’s, founded in 1964, caters to professional truck drivers and other motorists at more than 500 locations in 41 states. The Oklahoma City-based chain also has more than 370 truck service centers, which include on-site and stand-alone Speedco and Love’s Truck Care locations. Love's is No. 17 in CSP's2019 Top 202 ranking of c-store chains by total number of retail outlets.
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