Quillin's Foods reaches agreement with Festival Foods to sell two La Crosse, WI locations; No changes for remaining stores

Quillin's Foods and Festival Foods have announced that Festival Foods will buy two Quillin’s grocery stores located in LaCrosse, WI at the Village Shopping Center (2500 State Road) and in the Shelby Mall (3954 Mormon Coulee Road).
Quillin's Foods officials say there are no further changes planned for any of the five remaining Quillin's locations, including Quillin's Food Ranch in Waukon and Quillin's Food Center in Decorah, which intends to complete renewal of an agreement for its current leased location in Decorah's Centrum Plaza in the very near future.
Dave Skogen, chairman of Festival Foods, says the company is excited about the opportunity to expand its operations in the La Crosse area.
According to Skogen, the plan is to continue operating the Shelby Mall location through the fall of 2011. The Village Shopping Center store will be razed, followed by ground-up construction of a new 74,000 square foot Festival Foods store in the Village. Once the new store in the Village opens, the Shelby Mall store will close.
“Given that the Shelby Mall location is a mere 1.4 miles from where the new store will be in the Village, and its close proximity to our existing Festival Foods store on Copeland Avenue, we could not justify operating all three. It makes the most sense to close the Shelby Mall location once construction is complete on the new store at the Village location,” Skogen said.
“The Quillin and Skogen families have each served La Crosse and Onalaska area food shoppers for more than 60 years. We are grateful that we were able to reach an agreement with Quillin’s that will result in a continuation of family-owned food stores in the area now and far into the future. We are looking forward to welcoming Quillin’s customers as special guests at our stores,” Skogen said.

Quillin’s president Phil Quillin stated that selling the two stores to a local company was a high priority. “We feel the agreement we have reached with Festival Foods is in the best interest of our employees, customers, vendors and especially the community, as Festival will continue to support the community as Quillin’s has for so many years,” he said.
“Over the past 65 years, our family business has had the opportunity to serve and employ many wonderful people. We sincerely thank our customers and employees for their long-time support and loyalty. We wish Festival Foods great success with this endeavor. It is with great pride that we will continue to operate our stores in Caledonia and La Crescent, MN, Waukon and Decorah (in Iowa) and on The Island (French Island in LaCrosse, WI),” Quillin said.