By Karen Siegrist

Members of the H.J. Martin and Son Neenah team and guests enjoyed listening to John McHugh, manager of leadership development and training for Kwik Trip, at the Excellence in Leadership conference, held Tuesday, April 12, at the Oshkosh Convention Center.  He entertained us with stories from the company’s humble beginnings in Eau Claire, Wis., to their true success with more than 500 stores.

Kwik Trip is a family owned business with a mission statement, “Treat customers and co-workers as you would like to be treated yourself.”  With core values such as Integrity, Respect, Excellence, Humility and Innovation, it is easy to see Kwik Trip as a Midwestern “roll up your sleeves” work-ethic kind of company.

John McHugh

The Kwik Trip stores are seen as “part of the neighborhood” in the communities they are located.  The products in the stores themselves are 80 percent local products.

Kwik Trip receives more than 1,500 letters of thanks and gratitude each year for an employee going above and beyond in service.  The company shares these letters of appreciation with each other and co-workers congratulate each other when they are mentioned in one of these letters.

Kwik Trip now has 15,000 employees and has been named a top workplace in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.

Listening to John was very inspirational and it is easy to see why Kwik Trip is so successful.