VALPARAISO, Ind. -- Family Express Corp. is looking west to expand its retail gasoline and convenience store presence in northwestern Indiana, reported The Times of Northwest Indiana.
Family Express president and CEO Gus Olympidis said the company has spent nearly $8 million to acquire property and open stores in three Lake County, Ind., locations in the last three months.
At one location in Griffith, Ind., Family Express plans to open a car wash as part of completing upgrades to the former Nice 'N Easy site.
The privately held Family Express chain now has 57 locations in northwestern and north central Indiana, said the report, including seven in Lake County.
Watch the recent CSPTV segment on Family Express below. Also see Related Content below for previous CSP Daily News coverage of Family Express. And click here to view a recent CSP magazine cover story on the chain.
Olympidis said expanding in Lake County makes sense because of the locations' proximity to the Family Express central distribution center in Valparaiso, Ind. He also noted that current market conditions also allowed the business to "acquire some wonderful assets."
"Our company has been around for [about] 40 years, we have always experienced some degree of growth and development," Olympidis told the newspaper. "Because the development was happening further south like Lebanon, Frankfort or West Lafayette, in Lake County, people may not have been cognizant of it."
However, Olympidis said the expansion in Lake County is part of the company's efforts to expand the reach of its brand in the area. He said the company has been pleasantly surprised with the response it has received in markets that may not be as familiar with Family Express.
Luke Oil Co., a Family Express competitor in the area, is also in expansion mode, according to the report. Hobart, Ind.-based Luke Oil currently has approximately 30 retail locations in northwestern Indiana.
Based in Valparaiso, Family Express operates stores throughout Northwest and North Central Indiana. The company's unique logistics model consolidates 25 traditional DSD weekly deliveries into a single daily delivery thereby achieving transportation efficiencies and unsurpassed freshness for perishables.
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