Dive Brief:

• Kwik Trip CEO and president Donald P. Zietlow will retire at the end of 2022 after 22 years at the head of the company and 52 years with Kwik Trip overall, according to an emailed press release.
• Under Zietlow, Kwik Trip more than doubled its store count, launched new foodservice programs and debuted its loyalty program.
• His son, Scott Zietlow, will take over as president and CEO on Jan. 1, 2023, after retiring from his role as a professor of surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Dive Insight:

Kwik Trip has grown significantly under Donald Zietlow. In addition to expanding from around 300 stores to over 800, he also oversaw the addition of a hot food menu and the Glazers donut brand in 2003, a fresh food program in 2005 and what Kwik Trip called the United States’ first compressed natural gas (CNG) station in 2012. 

Donald Zietlow also oversaw the launch of Kwik Trip’s Kwik Rewards program in 2018 — a program that hit a million users that same year — and the addition of mobile ordering earlier in 2022.

The leadership succession plan keeps Kwik Trip under the leadership of the Zietlow family.

“I am honored to follow my dad’s legacy of guiding Kwik Trip,” said Scott Zietlow in the press release. “We are a very strong company and with our 36,000 phenomenal coworkers, great retail locations, and industry-leading vertical integration, our future is bright.”

Kwik Trip opened its first store in 1965 in Eau Clair, Wisconsin. The Zietlow family took over sole ownership of the the company in 2000, the same year Donald Zietlow took over as president and CEO.

The company has appointed Tom Reinhart as its chief operating officer and announced that Jeff Wrobel will stay on as the chief financial officer, according to the press release.

Kwik Trip currently operates 839 stores in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan, with three more locations expected to open before Dec. 1. The company was named the best gas station brand by USA Today this year.