Dive Brief:
- Midwest convenience retailer Hop Shops opened its first location in Indiana on Sept. 10, according to a series of company announcements made this week.
- The store is in Rockport, a small town in southern Indiana along the Kentucky border. Parent company Valor Oil has owned the property for years but had leased the convenience store out to various parties until now.
- Although the company doesn’t have immediate plans for more stores in Indiana, it’s always looking to expand throughout the tri-state area of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, a company spokesperson said.
Dive Insight:
Valor has big plans underway for its first Indiana location, which it’s calling the Rockport Truck Plaza.
The site, which already has a gas station, c-store and Wendy’s QSR, will be remodeled in the coming months, according to the announcements. Upgrades will include a Chester’s Chicken QSR — available starting Sept. 19 — as well as the chain’s disco bathrooms, which have become popular in recent years.
“Our focus will be on enhancing the customer experience by bringing our World Famous Disco Bathrooms and expanding our food offerings with Chester’s Chicken,” Damon Bail, vice president of retail operations for Valor, said in a Sept. 10 announcement. “This is the next step in our growth, and we’re excited to welcome the community to experience what HOP Shops has to offer.”
The chain also operates two HOP Shops truck stops around Owensboro, Kentucky, 10 HOP Shops c-stores in Northern Kentucky, and two truck stops in Ohio, according to the announcements.
Besides its convenience stores and truck stops, Owensboro-based Valor Oil provides private label and nationally branded gasoline, diesel and racing fuels, lubricants, antifreeze and other petroleum products across Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee and the Carolinas.
Hop Shops isn’t the only convenience retailer expanding to Indiana. Over the past year, retailers such as QuikTrip, Wawa, RaceTrac and Wally’s have also announced their arrivals in the Hoosier State.
