QuikTrip: opens bakery to supply Kansas City area

Tulsa / OK. (qtc) QuikTrip Corporation has opened a 100.000-square-foot bakery to supply pastries to its 74 Kansas City area stores, adding about 80 jobs at its complex in Belton. Under the name QT Kitchens, the bakery will initially produce doughnuts, muffins, rolls and cookies. Later it will expand its offerings to include sandwiches and wraps, which it eventually will supply to other Midwestern markets.

The bakery is the second opened by the Tulsa, Oklahoma based convenience store chain. The other is in Tulsa. Additional bakeries in Atlanta, Phoenix and Dallas are in the planning stages. «The QT Kitchens bakery operation in Tulsa was the testing ground for the program», Tim Heuback, Kansas City division manager, said in a statement.

The bakery employs about 80 people, according to Mike Thornbrugh, QuikTrip´s manager of public and government affairs. QuikTrip also operates a distribution center in Belton that employs about 380 people. QuikTrip, which is privately owned, operates 483 stores in nine states.