Kum & Go posts record store growth in 2012

Last edited 11:45 a.m., Jan. 9, 2013

Wes Des Moines, Iowa-based privately held convenience store chain Kum & Go LC last year opened 43 stores in nine states, including one in Springfield, representing a company record.

The store growth - which included a 1505 N. National Ave. store that opened Dec. 7 - pushes the chain's reach to 430 locations in 11 states, according to a news release.

Kum & Go says its previous record for store openings was set in 2009, at 21.

With a price tag of more than $4 million per store, Kum & Go claims it spent more than $170 million on store openings in 2012.

“In total,we’ve directly created more than 800 new jobs at Kum & Go and countless new career opportunities — not to mention the new store economic impact of supporting jobs in construction, including electricians, plumbers and more. In tough economic times when others are letting people go, we're hiring," Kum & Go President and CEO Kyle Krause said in the release.

New stores in the Little Rock, Ark., and Colorado Springs, Colo., markets represented new territory for the chain.

Krause said the company has similar expansion plans moving forward. “Our growth plan for the next five years is just as aggressive," he added in the release.

In Springfield, Kum & Go demolished an existing store to make way for a new location. The roughly $3.6 million, nearly 5,000-square-foot store was developed by Kum & Go with design work by Shiffler Associates Architects PLC of Des Moines, Iowa, and engineering work by Olsson Associates Inc., according to a separate release.[[In-content Ad]]