Kum & Go: We Go All Out!

Kum & Go Awarded Excellence in Customer Service

Convenience Store Company Scores Highest in Mystery Shop Out of Seven Chains

(West Des Moines, Iowa — Oct. 24, 2007) Convenience Store/Petroleum (CSP) magazine has honored Kum & Go, L.C., one of the nation’s leading convenience store chains, with its national “Excellence in Customer Service” Outlook Award. Kum & Go will be featured in the November issue of CSP, which is one of the leading and fastest growing publications in the convenience store industry, serving a targeted readership of more than 50,000.

CSP named Kum & Go the winner after reviewing mystery shopper results gathered by RitterAssociates, Inc. of Toledo, Ohio. Numerous mystery shoppers surveyed seven leading convenience store chains to compare customer service experiences. Kum & Go earned the highest score of 95.71 percent. This is the fourth year in which the mystery shop has been used for the Excellence in Customer Service Award.

"This honor is a reflection of our associates and management team and their ongoing relationship with our customers," said Kum & Go president and CEO Kyle Krause. "While we appreciate recognition by our peers for our customer service, it's most important we earn the respect of our customers, which we strive to do every day.”

The award was presented in Phoenix, Ariz., at the annual Outlook Leadership conference put on by CSP in partnership with the Leadership Network Corp. The conference is the premier top-to-top industry conference that brings together 350 leading retailers and suppliers for four days of relationship building and discovery. Convenience store operators and supplier sponsors share new ideas and solutions to industry issues while participating in activities that promote networking and relationship building.

During the awards presentation last month, CSP executive editor Jennifer Bulat highlighted Kum & Go’s seven core values and how they have guided the company to become the best in the industry when it comes to providing high-level, quality customer service.

"We start by hiring the best people for the job," said Steve Kimmes, Kum & Go senior vice president of Grow People, which is the company's Human Resource department. "Then we focus on continually reiterating the importance of positive customer interaction and giving our associates on-going performance feedback. We also strive to provide them with the tools they need to serve their customers exceptionally well."

CSP magazine is published by CSP Information Group, one of the leading media companies in the convenience store and retail petroleum industry. The magazine, which has earned several editorial awards, also publishes CSP Daily News, a past recipient of the Best New Web Publication by the American Society of Business Publication Editors. For more information about CSO, call (630) 574-5075 or visit www.cspnet.com.

In 1959 in Hampton, Iowa, company founders W. A. Krause and T.S. Gentle used the first letters of their last names to create a unique moniker to showcase the ease and convenience they instilled in a shopping experience. Thus Kum & Go was born. Since then, the convenience store chain has grown to more than 445 stores in 13 states (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Colorado, Arkansas, Wyoming and Wisconsin).