LA CROSSE, Wis. -- Kwik Trip Inc. will continue to grow because of its employees and innovations in what it sells at its convenience stores, president and CEO Don Zietlow said in a speech at the La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce Business Expo last week, reported the La Crosse Tribune.
At a luncheon attended by about 425 people, Zietlow detailed the company's history and suggested that a new offering may include take-home meals.
Kwik Trip currently has 332 convenience stores, 38 Tobacco Outlet stores and 7,457 employees, Zietlow [image-nocss] said. Sales totaled $2.7 billion in the fiscal year that ended September 30, he added.
The John Hansen family founded the Kwik Trip chain in 1965 with a store in Eau Claire, said the report. In 2000, the Hansens sold their interest in Kwik Trip to the Zietlow family for $120 million. The two families had jointly owned Kwik Trip since 1972. Zietlow said his family also assumed $160 million in debt, so it borrowed $300 million from banks.
Kwik Trip officials examined the company's strengths, weaknesses and opportunities, Zietlow said. Strengths included having the best people for employees, an excellent training program, owners with a passion for the business and the company's own dairy and ice cream plants, its own commissary for making food items, its own bakery and its own distribution center and transportation department, he said.
There also were weaknesses, Zietlow said. The sale of tobacco products was going to decline or go away, he said. The fuel margins that we had enjoyed in the past would become less in the future because of the competition that we're going to face with the box stores and the large grocery stores.
The company's marketing department used focus groups to find what customers wanted, Zietlow said. That included clean stores with clean bathrooms and a wide variety of hot and cold food items, he said.
Since 2002, the company has expanded into hot and cold prepared food products in a big way, and has expanded its selection of bakery items, coffee and other beverages.
As our customers become more confident in the quality of the food that we sell, I see us getting into take-home meals such as lasagna, chicken, beef, pork, fish, meat loaf, Zietlow said, according to the report. And our customers can pick it up fresh, take it home, pop it in the microwave.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.