Kwik Trip has a decades-long commitment to the co-workers, guests and the communities it serves.
Kwik Trip was honored as Convenience Store Decisions’ 2018 Convenience Store Chain of the Year at a dinner at the Stratosphere Theatre in Las Vegas on Oct. 8 during the NACS Show.
La Crosse, Wis.-based Kwik Trip is the 29th Chain of the Year and the second two-time winner. It was first honored by CSD in 2004.
Founded in 1965, Kwik Trip is still one of the fastest growing family-owned and operated convenience store chains. Today it operates 630 stores in three states and should be close to 700 by the end of 2019, noted John Lofstock, editor of Convenience Store Decisions.
“In a convenience culture where customers expect great service, quality and a memorable shopping experience, Kwik Trip exceeds expectations every day. From its employees to its world-class facilities, they simply have no weakness and it’s a pleasure to see them in action,” Lofstock said.
Joe Sheetz
Joe Sheetz, president of Sheetz, the winner of the 2017 Chain of the Year award, presented the award to Kwik Trip. It is tradition for the previous winner to present the award.
“They’re not just a family business at Kwik Trip,” Sheetz said. “They’re unbelievable retailers. They are a great employer, and if you go there you’ll hear senior management talk over and over again about taking care of their co-workers. You’ve got to get that right. It’s their ‘co-workers’ that they’re taking care of, and I respect that so much because they understand if they do that everything else will take care of itself. We’re honoring a very worthy recipient tonight.”
Don Zietlow, Kwik Trip’s founder and CEO accepted the award.
John Lofstock and Don Zietlow
“Thank you John for the evening, for our family it has been great. Our family is here tonight and our co-workers are here,” Zietlow said. “I always tell our co-workers, our family has to take care of our co-workers and the co-workers have to take care of our guests. If we do those two things well we’ll be very, very successful.”
Please join us in congratulating Kwik Trip as the 2018 Chain of the Year.
