Kwik Trip on July 10 is holding a groundbreaking ceremony for its second distribution center, which will be located in DeForest, Wisconsin, about 10 miles north of the state capitol in Madison.
The ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. at 4309 WI-19 in DeForest.
The 280,000-square-foot facility will sit on a 150-acre parcel of land Kwik Trip bought earlier this year, said the La Crosse, Wisconsin-based company, which produces more than 80% of the products sold in its stores, supplied by its own bakery, commissary, dairy and distribution center.
The center, expected to be completed in spring or summer 2025, will service 350 Kwik Trip stores and will include freezer, cooler and dry good space as well as four conditioning rooms for banana ripening.
- Kwik Trip is No. 11 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
“This new distribution center marks an historic development for Kwik Trip,” the company said, adding that before this new facility, all Kwik Trip stores were serviced from the distribution center in La Crosse. The new location will reduce the cost of distribution for stores in the southern part of Kwik Trip’s geographic footprint.
Scott Zietlow, CEO and president of Kwik Trip, said, “With our consistent growth in the number of stores, it is important for us to find the most efficient way to provide our stores with the many products they need. Our new distribution center is an exciting development for Kwik Trip.”
In addition to the distribution center, the Kwik Trip campus in DeForest also will include a truck wash, maintenance facility and onsite health clinic for its employees. Kwik Trip estimates it will employ 400 coworkers in these facilities.
Kwik Trip spokesperson Ben Leibl told CSP, “We are excited to break ground on this new distribution center in DeForest. We will be able to save on transportation costs and more efficiently serve our stores in southeastern Wisconsin. More importantly, we will be adding 400 jobs with the completion of the distribution center and are eager for its completion.”
Kwik Trip operates in Wisconsin, Minnesota and northern Michigan under the Kwik Trip name, and in Iowa, Illinois and South Dakota under the Kwik Star banner. Kwik Trip was recently named the best gas station brand in the United States for the fifth year in a row, according to the 2024 USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards. The family-owned company has about 850 locations and is one of the biggest independently held c-store chains in the country.
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