SALISBURY — Love’s Travel Stop cut the ribbon today at the new location on Interstate 85 at exit 71.
As part of the festivities, Love’s presented a $2,000 donation to the Rowan County Cooperative Extension’s 4H program.
Love’s opened April 3. The new travel stop includes Chester’s International and McDonald’s restaurants, as well as gourmet coffee, an expanded fountain drink selection, fresh fruit, travel items, gift merchandise and more. Professional drivers have 85 truck parking spaces and an on-site tire care center.
“Salisbury is an ideal location for our third travel stop in North Carolina with its access to I-85 and proximity to Greensboro and Charlotte,” said Tom Love, founder and executive chairman.
Founded in 1964, Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores is headquartered in Oklahoma City, Okla., and remains entirely family owned and operated. With more than 310 locations and 180 Love’s Truck Tire Care centers in 39 states, Love’s growth rate is roughly 20 stores per year.
Love’s is currently ranked No. 9 on Forbes Magazine’s annual listing of America’s Largest Private Companies.
Love’s bought the former Derrick’s Travel Plaza property in November 2012 for $1.5 million and demolished the old truck stop, including a chapel.
Derrick’s parking lot featured 25 anti-idling electrification towers, a clean-air project funded in part by a $400,000 federal grant. The towers were removed as a condition of Love’s purchase of the property, according to the company that removed them.