Area QuikTrips to Offer Fast, Fresh Food
By Bill Wilson, The Wichita Eagle, Kan.
Nov. 2–QuikTrip is joining the battle for fast-food market share in Wichita.
QT Kitchens, a new line of fresh sandwiches, salads, desserts and pastries, will premiere in the Wichita area’s 35 stores on Dec. 1, company spokesman Mike Thornbrugh said.
The food is made fresh daily at QT bakeries in Tulsa and a Kansas City suburb, then trucked daily to the company’s stores.
“Initially, it’s certainly going to impact the fast-food restaurants” near their stores, said Don Sayler, president of the Kansas Restaurant and Hospitality Association. “It’s the initial impression they make that will determine how well it succeeds.”
Wichita’s initial menu will include 24 to 26 bakery items, including doughnuts, muffins, brownies and cookies. Four to six kinds of deli-style sandwiches, fruit cups and salads will alsobe included in the initial product line.
“We’re very excited to see where we’re going to be in two or three years,” Thornbrugh said.
“This is just the beginning. There are going to be a lot more fresh food items.”
Fast food in a convenience store is an idea whose time has come, said Cindy Claycomb, a marketing professor at Wichita State University.
“If their food is good and if customers perceive they’re getting value for the price they’re paying and the convenience, then they’re going to carve out a niche in a hurry,” she said.
Sayler agreed.
“When I go into any of the QTs I like to pay attention to what the other customers are doing, and you notice pretty quickly that people are already picking up the heat-and-serve food,” he said.
That’s why Sayler thinks the convenience store giant, with 483 stores in nine states, will make some waves in the fast-food industry.
“They could certainly change the way the industry functions,” he said. “QT knows what they’re doing, and they do it very well.”
Wichita stores will be retooled for QT Kitchens. About half will be done by the time the line hits Wichita, Thornbrugh said.
Developing an idea
QT Kitchens went into development in 2002. Two years later, the company hired a chef and baker to develop menus and recipes, Thornbrugh said.
Then, QT bought a warehouse for a laboratory, including kitchen facilities and a mock store to experiment with marketing layouts.
In 2005, QT tested the idea in Tulsa with better-than-expected results. Pastry sales doubled, Thornbrugh said, “blowing product out the door.”
QT built bakeries in Tulsa and Belton, Mo., adding about 150 employees in each to handle the new business, he said. And it bought a line of refrigerated trucks to distribute the food.
Once Wichita joins the QT Kitchens line, Des Moines is next, Thornbrugh said. There are no immediate plans to add another bakery, but don’t rule Wichita out as a bakery site in the future, he said.
“We don’t do anything short-term,” Thornbrugh said. “This is a long-term commitment to the fresh food business, and we’re ready to compete in it with the industry right now.”
Reach Bill Wilson at 316-268-6290 or bwilson@wichitaeagle.com [mailto:bwilson@wichitaeagle.com].
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