» Kwik deal:
Sale subject to employee approval, will bring chain to 600 locations
La Crosse-based Kwik Trip has signed an agreement to acquire the assets of employee-owned PDQ Food Stores for an undisclosed price. The move will push Kwik Trip’s overall store count to about 600.
Kwik Trip Inc. has agreed to buy 34 PDQ convenience stores, a move that will push Kwik Trip’s overall store count to about 600.
La Crosse-based Kwik Trip said Wednesday that it has signed an agreement to acquire the assets of employee-owned PDQ Food Stores, of Middleton, for an undisclosed price.
The purchase will give Kwik Trip nine more stores in southeastern Wisconsin and 23 more in the Madison area, along with single stores in Menasha and North Fond du Lac.
The southeastern Wisconsin units include stores in Oak Creek, Cedarburg, Sussex, Delafield and three in Waukesha.
Kwik Trip expects to close the deal in October. It is subject to approval by PDQ employees.
Kwik Trip will operate the new locations under the PDQ name until it remodels them, a process expected to be finished in mid-2018.
The La Crosse company probably will spend $30 million to $40 million on the remodeling effort, spokesman John McHugh said. Among changes will be installation of Kwik Trip’s proprietary food program, with hot foods counters and fresh produce areas, as well as exterior remodeling to fit the Kwik Trip model, he said.
Known as a leader in its industry, Kwik Trip has grown steadily in the last three decades but has stepped up its expansion in recent years. With the PDQ acquisition, Kwik Trip will have added more than 200 stores since 2013.
The company operates as Kwik Trip in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and as Kwik Star in Iowa. The company has 459 Kwik Trip stores, 62 Kwik Star stores, 28 Tobacco Outlet Plus and 17 Tobacco Outlet Plus Grocery stores.
Kwik Trip employs more than 19,000 people and expects to add another 1,000 with the PDQ purchase. Six years ago, Kwik Trip had about 10,000 employees.
PDQ dates to 1949 but wasn’t branded with its current name — it stands for “pretty darn quick” — until 1962. The Jacobsen family owned the chain until 2009, when it was sold to employees.
Besides the Wisconsin locations, PDQ has one store in Tahoma, Calif., — in a rustic, lodge-style building along Lake Tahoe. Kwik Trip is not buying that store.
As of last November, Kwik Trip was the country’s 15th largest convenience store chain, according to Convenience Store News.