The Kent Cos.
Kent Kwik new-to-industry stores feature open ceilings, beige tile on the floor, wood elements on the cabinets and red tile along the walls.
Kent bought the business from his father in 1984. At the time, the company had 12 stores, three lube centers, 30 dealers and around 75 employees. Time will tell if the third generation takes the reigns. Kent’s daughter Alli Brinker is involved with the business part-time, and his son Buck is 14. “I don’t know how much family I’ll have in the business, but I’m structuring the company so that if they want to be active in the business, there’ll be opportunities. If they don’t want to be, they’re going to have to be good owners, good investors and good stewards of the business and make sure there’s a process to hire good quality leadership to run the company. And I think we have that now.”
New-to-industry Kent Kwik stores measure about 4,500 square feet, while travel stops range from 7,000 square feet to 12,000 square feet.
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CSTORE DECISIONS •
May 2022
GROWING FOOD CONCEPTS
Foodservice is an important focus for The Kent Cos. It operates seven Huddle House franchises and three Baskin Robbins franchises. It features three Rustic Cafés, a proprietary concept, at its truck stops, and its first freestanding Rustic Café is currently under construction. “The (Rustic Café) concept was born out of the truck stop business,” Kent said. “It’s really the kind of food you would expect, if you went into a truck stop; that would be just good old comfort food.” The offering includes fried chicken, chicken-fried steak, steak fingers and burgers. “If it’s fried, we’re selling it,” Kent said. “Our goal is to have the best chicken-fried steak we can of anybody in the market.” Rustic Café also serves breakfast 24 hours a day, making it a popular spot for breakfast customers. The Kent Cos. also runs its own centralized commissary that supplies its stores in west Texas. “It doesn’t cover everything in every market,” Kent explained. “We’re trying to address that in each new market we’re moving into, which we haven’t done as of yet.” Kent Kwik’s newer stores feature a proprietary concept called Kwik Eats. Customers order food via touchscreen kiosks, and the food is made to order in the store. The offering includes items such as chicken, burgers and fries. New builds without a Kwik Eats feature open air coolers and food warmers with grab-and-go food supplied by the commissary. The Kent Cos. has also been rolling out bean-tocup coffee dispensers to its entire fleet of stores over the past two years. The high-quality coffee and virtually zero waste that bean-to-cup offered sold Kent on the switch. cstoredecisions.com
