Come fall, Colorado Springs, Colorado, will become the fourth Kum & Go market to get the convenience-store chain’s new made-to-order fresh-food menu.
The new food program will serve the approximately 30 locations in that market, Taylor Boland, Kum & Go’s director of communications, told CSP.
Little Rock, Arkansas; Omaha, Nebraska; and Des Moines, Iowa, are the three markets that already have the new food program, which features stackers and bowls for all dayparts and includes premium ingredients and fresh toppings and sauces—as well as grab-and-go burritos. New ingredients such as brown rice and spinach bowl bases also are featured, while old favorites such as pizza and bakery items remain on the menu.
“We officially finished rolling out in the Des Moines market in February,” Boland said. “We put a bow on it.”
- Kum & Go is No. 22 on CSP’s 2023 Top 40 update to the 2022 Top 202 ranking of convenience store chains by store count. Watch for the full 2023 Top 202 in June.
Boland said the company selected Colorado Springs in part because Colorado, where Kum & Go is rapidly building stores, is a huge market for the chain. Colorado Springs in particular is a “very developed” market for Kum & Go.
“There’s a certain kind of customer base we’re going after with the new food program—we’re calling it ‘the healthy striver’—and we feel the people in Colorado Springs will be very receptive to the new food program,” Boland said.
Kum & Go is setting ingredient-quality standards not normally expected in the c-store space, Natasha Ratzlaff, director of category management, told CSP previously. The chain also is adding ingredients such as brown rice and spinach bowl bases not normally found at c-stores, she said.
“We do still bring in fun convenience-store flair through creative toppings such as Takis on our mango pork stacker and Corn Nuts on the Chimi Chicken Bowl,” Ratzlaff said.
In June 2022, after trial and feedback on its new menu launch in fall 2021, the convenience-store chain created additional menu items to increase customer choices and meet their needs. Added offerings included freshly made grab-and-go breakfast burritos with four premium meat options, and made-to-order breakfast bowls featuring a choice of breakfast potato or wilted spinach base.
Kum & Go, which opened its first location in Michigan in January and closed four nonfuel stores in December, will continue rolling out the refreshed brand and new food program across its entire footprint over the next several years, the company said.
Established in Hampton, Iowa in 1959, Kum & Go is a fourth-generation, family-owned convenience-store chain with more than 400 locations. Kum & Go plans to hire more than 5,000 associates across all locations this year, adding 176 food positions as it expands its brand and food program in Des Moines.