Kwik Trip CEO Don Zietlow Retires

Scott Zietlow, chair of the board, will take the lead at the Midwest convenience store chain

AFTER 52 YEARS, Kwik Trip Inc. President and CEO Don Zietlow will retire at the end of 2022. He has spent 22 years in his current role.

Kwik Trip’s chair of the board and secondgeneration owner Scott Zietlow will succeed his father, effective Jan. 1. He will retire from his role as a professor of surgery in the Trauma, Critical Care and General Surgery Division of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., to assume his new responsibilities at La Crosse, Wis.-based Kwik Trip.

“I am honored to follow my dad’s legacy of guiding Kwik Trip,” Scott Zietlow said. “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.”

During Kwik Trip’s 50th anniversary celebration in 2015, Don Zietlow said the company is “in good hands” with the second and third generations of the Zietlow family.

Kwik Trip’s first convenience store opened in Eau Claire, Wis., in 1965. Five years later, Kwik Trip added gasoline sales to that store. The retailer expanded its reach to La Crosse and grew its portfolio to five stores in 1971.

In 1972, Don Zietlow and John Hansen established ownership positions, and the company remained jointly owned until the Zietlow family bought the Hansen family’s interest in 2000.

Fast forward to the present day, Don Zietlow’s leadership has brought substantial growth and innovation to Kwik Trip. The company currently operates more than 800 locations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan. Kwik Trip’s Support Center in La Crosse has grown vertically, including major capital investments in dairy, kitchens, bakeries and a distribution center.

During his tenure, Don Zietlow was the driving force behind sharing 40 percent of the company’s pretax profits with all coworkers.

He was inducted into the Convenience Store News Hall of Fame in 2015.

As part of the new leadership team at Kwik Trip, Tom Reinhart has been appointed chief operating officer. Jeff Wrobel will continue in his role as chief financial officer.