QUICK EXPANSION
See numbers behind Kwik Trip’s growth in the state and beyond
The Kwik Trip juggernaut continues to roll.
In the past four years, the La Crosse based company has added more than 150 locations to its network of convenience stores, while diving full-on into new product lines like the ready-to-eat meals it rolled out in 2020.
Behind that public-facing growth, there’s a vast, often unnoticed operation that churns out bakery, salads, meals and more, and delivers it daily to the company’s 800-plus locations.
In December, Kwik Trip announced a $151 million expansion of its La Crosse food production, distribution and office operations that will position the company for further growth while creating up to 500 new jobs.
Here’s a by the numbers look at Kwik Trip and its growth:
866 locations and counting
The first Kwik Trip opened in La Crosse in 1971, and it took 15 years for the company to reach 100 locations.
Growth accelerated from there, as the company opened 500 stores over the next 20 years, and more than 300 since 2016.
Recent growth has included both newly built locations and the acquisition of 168 existing stores, including 34 PDQ stores in Wisconsin and 36 StopN-Go locations in Wisconsin and Illinois.
The company’s most recent addition, a location in Sturgeon Bay, opened Dec. 14.
Kwik Trip’s 506 Wisconsin convenience stores make up the majority of its locations, but it also has grown in other states. It operates another 360 Kwik Trip and Kwik Star stores in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan and South Dakota.
Workforce is 38,600 — tripled in five years
Kwik Trip employs 38,600 people between its stores, its corporate headquarters and its food production and distribution operations.
Much of that workforce is in Wisconsin, where the company has 12,442 fulltime employees, according to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.
That’s nearly triple the 3,432 full-time workers it employed just five years ago.
More than 13,000 people work at Kwik Trip’s Wisconsin locations part time.
24,000 Glazers an hour
According to its website, Kwik Trip’s
La Crosse bakery can make 400 Glazer doughnuts a minute, or 24,000 an hour.
That added up to 45 million of the company’s signature doughnuts in 2022, and millions more of other baked goods such as cookies, muffins and sandwich buns, all of which are shipped to the stores daily. The company also has its own dairy operation and a commissary operation that makes Kwik Trip’s pizzas, ready to eat meals, salads and more.
In all, Kwik Trip says about 80% of the products it sells are prepared at its La Crosse production plants. That vertical integration — food production, transportation and retail sales — has been a key to the company’s growth.
The $151 million expansion will add to that operation and also include development of a new office building in Onalaska.
Kwik Rewards proves successful
Kwik Trip launched Kwik Rewards, its customer loyalty program, in 2018. The program allows regular customers to earn discounts on food and gas and to receive coupons and special offers that are exclusive to Kwik Rewards.
More than 1 million people signed up in that first year. Today, nearly 4 million people are enrolled in the rewards program.
The company said it serves 11.5 million customers a week.
$41 million in state tax credits help
The company’s expansion of its food products and distribution operations in La Crosse has been assisted by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., through its Enterprise Zone Tax Credit program.
At the outset, the company was awarded up to $21 million in tax credits that were tied to the company’s plan to invest $309 million in the La Crosse campus and create 300 new jobs. An additional $5 million was awarded when the project had exceeded that goal and created more than 500 jobs. In all, the expansion has led to the creation of 1,793 full-time jobs, according to WEDC.
An additional $15 million was approved by WEDC in December with the expectation that the $151 million expansion will create an additional 500 fulltime jobs over the next decade.