By the time this year is over, Kum & Go will have gone. The stores will remain, but the iconic Iowa name and branding “will disappear by 2025,” CSP Daily News reported on Monday. In April 2023, Kyle Krause, the CEO of Krause Group, announced he would sell Kum & Go and Solar Transport, a […]
Iowa Business
Posted inCentral Iowa
From online stores to food trucks, microbusinesses are booming with help from Iowa SBA
Curtis Baugh champions small businesses. He even has an award to prove it. The senior business consultant at the Small Business Solutions Center at the Evelyn K. Davis Center for Working Families has helped thousands of people start and grow their businesses. The Iowa district office of the Small Business Administration (SBA) in May recognized […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa’s record stores remain community hubs, weathering ups and downs in the vinyl market
For the music industry, 2021 was definitely a memorable year. With concerts and live entertainment essentially on ice for much of the year, consumers pivoted, directing their expendable income to physical products instead, resulting in a landmark year for record stores. Variety reported in March that 2021 marked the first year since 1996 that both […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Outdoor products made in Iowa, from bug spray to bicycle bags
Eco Lips – SPF lip balms, sunscreen and bug spray Based in Cedar Rapids Protect your lips and skin against the heat and annoying mosquitos, gnats, no-see-ums and other Iowa plagues. Eco Lips lip balm is made with organic products, with the choice of 15 or 30 SPF and three flavors: mint, berry and sport. […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
This Des Moines comic writer launched his own Afrocentric sci-fi/fantasy universe
In a few years, Des Moines music artist, model and writer Aniekan White went from writing stories here and there in “the comic realm” to entering the 2021 Web Toons digital comic contest. That success bloomed into one of the few Black-owned comic companies in the U.S. White is the owner and founder of Sensi’il […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa town with 5,000 residents to lose 450 jobs
When Tyson Foods announced on Friday, July 25 that it will discontinue operations at three facilities across the U.S. — one of which is located in Cherokee, Iowa — the company’s news release came with a rather innocuous headline: “Tyson Foods Activates Plan to Improve Prepared Foods Performance.” Strip away the shareholder language, and the […]
