HOBART | Luke Oil will be expanding its scope in Northwest Indiana with the addition of at least six new retail convenience stores in 2013, the company announced this week.
Luke is still negotiating deals for stores in Hobart, Crown Point, Highland, East Chicago, Lafayette and other locations, will add more than 40 new jobs, said Dana More-Sudac, human resources director for Luke Oil.
More-Sudac said the implementation of a new management model made the expansion possible.
"I think we spent a lot of time, blood, sweat and tears in hiring some key people in key positions that have really allowed us to go forward with a plan," More-Sudac said.
More-Sudac said Luke experienced prior success, "without a lot of systems and processes in place."
More-Sedac is currently going store to store, spending two weeks at each location implementing the newly-formed retail planning and training model.
"I don't know how we got to this point without them before," she said. "It's hard to add 10 stores when you don't have a system in place."
Luke Oil is hosting a job fair Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at County Line Orchard, 200 S. County Line Road in Hobart for the new positions created by the new stores.
More-Sudac said Friday's job fair will be for positions in all facets of the company, including retail and transport.
Each new retail store will employ eight to 10 people with pay starting above minimum wage, More-Sudac said.
Luke Oil was founded in 1967 in Hobart and has remained a local, family-owned and operated convenience store chain.
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