TULSA, Okla. -- With the sale last week by QuikTrip Corp. of its five Springfield, Mo., locations to Casey's General Stores Inc., QuikTrip--which is expanding in markets such as Charlotte, N.C. and Spartanburg, S.C.--completely withdrew from the Springfield market. The deal was part of the retailer's strategy to focus on expansion in larger markets with a greater number of stores.
QuikTrip spokesperson Mike Thornbrugh told CSP Daily News, "We're going to the Carolinas, and developing two new markets, and in those two new markets, there will be lots of stores. [image-nocss] Springfield was just not going to be store growth count for us, so it does not fit our long-term strategy."
He added, for example, "we go to Dallas/Fort Worth--we currently have 80 stores; we have 180 in Atlanta. Our strategy is that when we go to a marketplace, we have a lot of stores."
Shortly after the transaction with Casey's was announced, Thornbrugh said that Springfield "was a good market for QuikTrip, and it was a very difficult decision to leave it, but that market no longer fit our long-term strategy, so we sold [the stores] to a high-quality operator."
(Click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage of the Springfield deal.)
Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey's has approximately 1,550 stores in nine Midwestern states, primarily Iowa, Missouri and Illinois. It is well-known for being a rural operator. Executives did not respond by press time to a request for comment on that strategy.
In January, QuikTrip said it is planning to enter the Spartanburg, S.C., market.
(Click here for previous coverage of QuikTrip's move into South Carolina.)
In February, the company said that it is planning a major entry into the Charlotte, N.C., market with--by some media reports--up to 60 convenience stores during the next five years.
(Click here for previous coverage of QuikTrip's move into Charlotte.)
Thornbrugh would not confirm the number of stores it plans to open in the Carolinas in the short term or long term, but he said, "When we go there, it will be a good representation of QuikTrip stores."
QuikTrip, based in Tulsa, Okla., currently operates 572 stores in nine states, in the Midwest, Arizona and metropolitan Atlanta areas. It opened two stores yesterday--one in Frisco, Texas, and one in Chandler, Ariz. It also has 21 locations under construction throughout its network, said Thornbrugh.
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