QuikTrip Exits Car Wash Business

TULSA, Okla. -- A little more than a year since QuikTrip Corp. announced it would halt any expansion of its car wash venture, the convenience store chain sold all three of its existing washes to Zip's Car Wash, based in Jonesboro, Ark., according to www.CarWashKing.com, which brokered the deal Dec. 28.

Two of the express exterior washes are in Wichita, Kan., while the other is in the Tulsa, Okla., market. Previous to this purchase, Zip's consisted of two locations.

Details of the sale were not released, the report stated.

As CSNews Online reported last November, after a lengthy test of the car wash business that reportedly performed well, QuikTrip announced it would halt any expansion of the venture, and was considering the sale of its existing car wash facilities.

"We wanted to take all the time we needed to look at it," company spokesman Mike Thornbrugh told CSNews Online at the time. "The stores were good, profits were good and public perceptions were good, but we looked at it after a while and found we put the same dollars in [building] a car wash as a QuikTrip," he said, noting the convenience store generates a better return on investment.

The three existing sites -- two conveyor-style, brushless facilities that were built in 2006 in Wichita, and one in the surrounding suburb of Glenpool, Okla. that was started in 2004 -- are near QuikTrip stores, but can be determined separate businesses.

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QuikTrip Halts Car Wash Venture
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