Kwik Trip Recognized Among America's Best Employers for Women

LA CROSSE, Wis. — Kwik Trip Inc. is being lauded as one of America's Best Employers for Women by Forbes, coming in at No. 308 on the annual ranking.

Known as Kwik Trip in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and as Kwik Star in Iowa, the La Crosse-based company operates 800 convenience stores and has 28,000 employees.

A number of convenience store industry suppliers and wholesalers also made the annual list, including:

• No. 32 — General Mills
• No. 59 — Unilever
• No. 60 — McKee Foods
• No. 79 — The Coca-Cola Co.
• No. 159 — MillerCoors
• No. 186 — Procter & Gamble
• No. 269 — Mars
• No. 298 — The Hershey Co.
• No. 327 — Kellogg
• No. 358 — Kraft Heinz Co.
• No. 395 — Keurig Dr Pepper

This is the third time in 2022 that Kwik Trip has been recognized by Forbes. This year alone, the company was named among Forbes' Best Employers for New Grads (ranked No. 168) and America's Best Large Employers (No. 78).

Last year, Kwik Trip was also recognized by Forbes as one of America's Best Employers by State, and in 2019 as America's Best Employer’s (No. 199) and Best Employers for Diversity (No. 322).

"The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected women around the nation. Many women have left the workforce due to childcare demands, stress, low pay and a lack of opportunities. In many cases, COVID has amplified the burden felt by women. Many employers have stepped up to offer flexible work arrangements, childcare options and other benefits to support women in the workplace," Forbes said.

To compile the annual Best Employers For Women ranking, Forbes and market research company Statista surveyed 50,000 Americas — 30,000 women and 20,000 men — working for businesses with at least 1,000 employees. All respondents were asked to rate their organizations on criteria such as working conditions, diversity and how likely they’d be to recommend their employer to others.

Responses were reviewed for potential gender gaps. Statista then asked female respondents to rate their employers on factors such as parental leave, discrimination and pay equity, and to nominate organizations in industries outside their own. Representation at the executive and board levels were also factored into the final score.

Supporting Working Parents

To fulfill its employees' needs for childcare, Kwik Trip proposed the Kwik Trip Kids Learning Center earlier this year. The employee childcare center would be located at 2839 Darling Court in La Crosse, the former site of the La Crosse Wellness Center, as Convenience Store News previously reported.

"It's obviously something that's a challenge for a lot of people right now," Bryan Novy, a representative for Kwik Trip, said at the time of the proposal. "This is something that we think will really help our coworkers, which in turn should help our community as well."

The Kwik Trip Kids Learning Center would have classrooms, a library, an art room, and enough space to serve 168 children with 40 staff members, according to Vantage Architects.

The convenience store operator purchased the building last fall. Kwik Trip did not provide details on a future timeline for the project.