Kum & Go, QuikTrip Make Des Moines Market Moves

DES MOINES, Iowa — Moves by two major chains are changing the face of the Des Moines, Iowa, convenience-store market. Kum & Go and QuikTrip have both recently sold several stores in and around Des Moines, according to a report by the Des Moines Register.

Kum & Go has nearly 400 c-stores in 11 Midwestern states. QuikTrip operates c-stores in 11 states and 14 markets. It opened its 800th c-store earlier in April in San Antonio. Also earlier this month, the chain announced it will be entering the Denver market.

*QuikTrip is No. 11 in the Top 40 update to CSP's 2018 Top 202 ranking of c-store chains by number of company-owned retail outlets. Kum & Go is No. 18.

Here are the details of the chains’ Des Moines moves …

At the end of 2018, Kum & Go LC, which has headquarters in Des Moines, sold five c-stores to IM & AY LLC, Plano, Texas, a spokesperson for the retailer confirmed for CSP Daily News. One of the stores is in West Des Moines, two are in Perry and two are in Boone, Iowa.

“Kum & Go’s strategy is to provide a more consistent store experience for our customers by offering on-site kitchens, fresh food and a variety of fuels in newer, larger stores,” said Ariel Rubin, communications director for the c-store retailer. “Even though these stores have been valuable and profitable assets, they no longer fit into the company’s long-term plans.”

The company is allowing Kum & Go employees at those stores to either transfer to another location or stay with the new owners, said the report.

QuikTrip recently closed one Des Moines store and is selling four more stores in the area. The chain has 24 stores in the market, the report said.

“The one store we are closing because we built a brand-new Generation 3 store about a half-mile away, so obviously that affects the existing store dramatically,” Mike Thornbrugh, spokesperson for Tulsa, Okla.-based QuikTrip, told CSP Daily News.

The chain is selling stores in Clive, Urbandale, Johnston and Windsor Heights, Iowa, the Register said.

“It's not unusual for QuikTrip. We constantly go through and evaluate stores throughout the company and make decisions on do we want to keep them open, relocate them or do a scrape and build,” Thornbrugh said. “For those stores, we just made decisions that they no longer fit our long-term portfolio.”

QuikTrip also won the Des Moines Register’s online poll asking readers to pick their favorite Iowa c-stores to get coffee, tea, pizza, roller-grill hot dogs, fountain drinks and snacks. It counted more than 2,600 votes.

QuikTrip rated as readers' favorite across four categories: tea, roller-grill hot dogs, fountain and snacks.

Fellow Iowa rival c-store chain Casey’s General Stores, based in Ankeny (No. 4 in CSP’s Top 202 ranking), topped the poll for pizza, coffee and doughnuts.

Kum & Go placed second for pizza, roller-grill hot dogs, coffee and fountain and third for tea, doughnuts and snacks.