The constant travel helps Marks, 49, who joined the Pantry after 21 years with Coca-Cola Enterprises in Atlanta, rack up the frequent flier miles and get work done. "You're actually more productive" while flying, [image-nocss] he said. "There's no one calling."
Marks has been at the helm of Cary, N.C.-based The Pantry for about three months, replacing longtime CEO Pete Sodini at the end of September. He spoke to The News & Observer about his experience so far and plans for the future.
Q: How do you like it so far?
A: I love it. There's a tremendous amount of opportunity. It's a business I know very well from being on the other side.
Q: From listening in on the last quarterly earnings conference call, it seems you want to focus on merchandise sales in 2010. Is that right?
A: We think our big opportunities over the long term are developing a meaningful on-the-go meal offering. The convenience retail channel can win on breakfast, lunch and snacks. Compared with others in this industry, we are way behind. We're not even out of the gate. No channel can compete on the need for speed like we can. People can consolidate trips. You can fill up your car and get your lunch all in one trip.
Q: Isn't breakfast a tough area to enter, especially with McDonald's launching a $1 breakfast menu next month?
A: I have tremendous respect for McDonald's. But I think we can beat them on convenience and speed. ... One of the things we can offer is breadth of offering. Because it's self-service. Specifically in the area of beverages, we can offer way more than a fast-food restaurant. We can deliver Arizona tea and Mountain Dew, anything you want. A QSR [quick-service restaurant] would kill to be able to deliver on that.
Q: What kinds of items do you plan to introduce?
A: Fresh pastries, wraps, hot-to-go breakfast sandwiches, fresh fruit. You can come up with a reasonably extensive array for breakfast options. We'll find the right assortment, and it won't be the same in every store.
Q: What's your timeline?
A: I want to be piloting in a select number of stores in spring 2010. Then we'll make decisions, and by the end of 2010 we'd like to be able to move it to a full initialization, as long as we can do it right. We don't want to do it twice.
Q: If your emphasis next year is on these changes, is it fair to say that The Pantry will be less focused on growth by acquisition?
A: It's fair. But it's important to say we're not, as a matter of principle, saying we're not interested in growing by acquisition. We need to be really smart about it. Any acquisitions would need to be in the right market and be accretive to our earnings. We've had some opportunities in the two to three months I've been here, and we've passed because they didn't meet those two filters.
Q: How has your experience with Coke helped you here?
A: People think of Coca-Cola and they think of the polar bears and the hilltop singers. But what makes Coca-Cola great is there's an army of people out there who know exactly what they have to do and they execute really well. That's the magic formula. This company is no different. Over time, it will be less about the items we offer and more about the people out there executing well every day.
Click hereto read previous coverage of Mark's first few months at the CEO of The Pantry.
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