Dive Brief:
- Kwik Trip will break ground on a new distribution center in DeForest, Wisconsin, on July 10, the company announced last week.
- The 280,000-square-foot facility is one of several planned uses for a 150-acre plot of land the convenience retailer purchased in March for $14 million, according to local reports.
- The building is expected to service 350 Kwik Trip stores, offering cold and frozen foods as well as produce. The new site will take some of the load off Kwik Trip’s existing distribution center in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and is expected to reduce the cost of supplying the company’s stores in the south.
Dive Insight:
Kwik Trip’s new distribution center is part of $151 million the company has dedicated to expanding its food and operational facilities in the coming years.
“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,” said Scott Zietlow, CEO and president of Kwik Trip.
The facility includes coolers, freezers, space for dry goods and four conditioning rooms for ripening bananas.
The groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. on July 10 at the site, which is located at 4309 Wisconsin Route 19 in DeForest. Later additions to the DeForest campus are slated to include a truck wash, a maintenance facility and a health clinic for employees. Combined, these facilities are expected to employ 400 people.
Other upgrades Kwik Trip is planning include expanding its dairy, commissary and bakery facilities in La Crosse.
Kwik Trip isn’t alone in expanding production and distribution infrastructure. Weigel’s revealed in March that it has begun work on a 110,000-square-foot commissary that will prepare food for its c-stores as well as handle some distribution.
LaCrosse, Wisconsin-based Kwik Trip operates more than 880 convenience stores in six states under two banners, Kwik Trip and Kwik Star.
