Kwik Trip Begins to Restore Internal Systems Following Outage

LA CROSSE, Wis. — Kwik Trip Inc. systems are on the road to recovery after an unknown incident disrupted digital operations for several days.

The convenience store operator reported that it is making progress restoring systems affected by an outage that prevented customers from logging into the Kwik Trip mobile app or website and downed the company's phones.

However, questions remain whether the problem was related to a system failure, a malicious cyber attack or some other cause. Kwik Trip spokesperson Ben Leibl told the Wisconsin State Journal that "to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation, we are unable to share additional information about the nature of the incident at this time. We are actively and thoroughly investigating the incident with third-party information security experts."

Leibl added that the company will provide further updates and information as appropriate.

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Kwik Trip shared on social media that its teams have been "working tirelessly" and have restored full access to many internal systems.

"While we are still experiencing an outage to the Kwik Rewards Program, our retail and customer-facing systems are not impacted. Our payment card processing system remains secure and unaffected," said John McHugh, vice president of external relations. "Throughout this period, our ability to accept credit and debit card payments was not impacted, and this remains true across all of our locations. For the systems that remain down, we anticipate that functionality will be restored in the coming days."

The company is investigating the incident in partnership with third-party information security experts and does not currently have any evidence that anyone's personal or confidential information has been acquired by an unauthorized party. While Kwik Trip could not provide a definitive timeline for the time-intensive process, it hopes to wrap up the investigation in the coming days.

Customers who are members of Kwik Rewards are encouraged to continue swiping their cards, as these purchases will be tracked and awarded once the program is back online. More information will be provided at a later date regarding potentially missed rewards. Additionally, Kwik Rewards Plus credit and debit cards are currently functioning, and members can expect their in-store/fuel discount to be awarded in the form of a statement credit when systems are fully restored, the company said.

Kwik Trip added that it will work with Kwik Rewards Plus credit cardholders whose payments were due during the outage on resolving and correcting any late penalties as soon as Kwik Rewards comes back online.

"We want to extend our sincere gratitude to all of our guests who have shown patience and understanding during this time, as well as our coworkers who have worked relentlessly through this outage and continue to provide the best possible service," the company stated.

Headquartered in La Crosse, Kwik Trip operates more than 840 convenience stores in the Midwest. Its stores are known as Kwik Trip in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and as Kwik Star in Iowa and South Dakota.