Kum & Go
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail (convenience stores) |
| Founded | Hampton, Iowa (1959) |
| Headquarters | West Des Moines, Iowa |
Key people | William Krause and Tony Gentle, founders Kyle Krause, CEO |
| Revenue | $1.2 billion (2005) |
Number of employees | 3,500 |
| Website | www.kumandgo.com |
Kum & Go is a convenience store chain primarily located in the Midwestern United States.
The chain was founded by William A. Krause and Tony S. Gentle, who founded the Hampton Oil Company in Hampton, Iowa, in 1959. Hampton Oil eventually became the Krause Gentle Corporation, which is Kum & Go's parent company. Krause Gentle moved its corporate headquarters to its current home in West Des Moines, Iowa, in 1988. William Krause's son, Kyle, is the current CEO of Krause Gentle.
Kum & Go went through a period of rapid expansion in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In addition to building new stores, Krause Gentle acquired unwanted stores from chains such as 7-Eleven, QuikTrip, and Git 'n' Go and converted them to Kum & Go stores. By the end of 2005, Kum & Go had 427 locations in 13 states; over half of their stores (229) are in Iowa. In a Des Moines Register interview that was published on February 12, 2006, Kyle Krause mentioned that Kum & Go plans to expand to 950 stores by the end of 2008.
The Kum & Go name, which was adopted during the 1970s, is a play on the phrase "come and go" using the initials of Krause and Gentle.
In addition to Kum & Go, the Krause Gentle Corporation operates Liberty Bank, the Des Moines Menace soccer team, Solar Transport (a refined fuel transporter), and Teamwork Acres (a collection of farms in Clarke, Madison, and Warren counties in Iowa). The Krause family is also involved with the Swing of the Quad Cities baseball team.
Fun Facts
- The speed-death-metal-folk band "Hale of Gun Fire" met while working at a Kum and Go.
- The indie film "Detective Mike KayHale in Danger on Vampire Trail" was written at a Kum and Go location in Ames, Iowa by Michael Maurice Hale.
References
- "Kum & Go Fuels Up For Fast Growth" by Patt Johnson, Des Moines Register, February 12, 2006