Krause replaced his father, W.A."Bill" Krause, as CEO of the Kum & Go convenience store chain in 2003. Since then, "we've grown from roughly a $400 million company to about $2 billion today," he told the newspaper.
There are now 464 stores, up from 314 [image-nocss] at the beginning of 2004. Thanks to expansions and location changes, roughly 360 different stores have been bought, sold or built by the company during that period, Krause said. Kum & Go stores continue to get bigger and more modern, and be more smartly run in terms of product selection and inventory control, said the report.
Kyle Krause described a company that has tried to grow both rapidly and well in the past decade: In short, "We've changed what we look like as a company."
That is part of the reason workers recently changed the sign outside Krause's West Des Moines office from "Krause Gentle Corp." to "Kum & Go," the report added.
Names are important, said Scott Helms, art director at PUSH Branding & Design in Des Moines. "I've never even heard of Krause Whatever-You-Said," he told the newspaper. But he added that he believes some companies can get along just fine with a corporate name few people know. But in general, if you have a name that resonates with consumers, you might as well use it.
Krause offered a similar explanation for why the company was changing the sign on the company's headquarters, despite keeping the legal name Krause Gentle.
"I always knew what Krause Gentle meant, but I'm not sure the public did," he told the Register. "I just felt that this communicated a clearer message."
[Editor's Note: Krause Gentle got its name in 1959 by combining the names of founders William A. Krause and Tony S. Gentle, their initials also leading to the name Kum & Go.]
Krause also discussed the company's growth plans. "Our mission is to profitably grow the company," he told the paper. "We're a growth company."
That means drawing up plans to build 20 to 25 new stores each year and acquiring others along the way if individual transactions make sense, said the report. And the company has developed a larger store footprint and a larger selection of private-label food, as well as adding more Redbox DVD rental kiosks.
Kum & Go now has six people who work in a business intelligence department and focus on nothing but product mix and site-selection decisions, Krause said. The company also has people focused on monitoring the quality of Kum & Go stores. "You get to a size where you can do that, and the end output is that you can create a better quality experience for the customers of Kum & Go," he said. "My growth plans are to grow as quickly as we can and remain privately owned."
Of the recent attempt by Laval, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.'s attempt to take over Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey's General Stores Inc., Krause said that c-store prices went through an expensive phase between 2006 and 2008. Kum & Go, which has fueled much of its growth through acquisition, got more selective during that period, he said: "We've moved the bar on who we're willing to buy, from an acquisition standpoint."
Krause said Couche-Tard likely believes that the market has changed and that the timing is right for a run at Casey's. He said that he knows and respects the leadership at both companies. "You have two good companies with good management," he said. "However it winds up working out, I think here in Iowa, we're going to have good management running either chain."
He added that one of the benefits of being privately owned is that management can think longer term. Krause cited Kum & Go's early support of ethanol and E85 as an example of something that likely could not be done in a company that had to keep an eye on its stock price. "We do it because that's part of supporting local businesses," Krause said. "You do it because ultimately, it's a good decision. You might be early, but it's a good decision."
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