WAWA, Pa. -- After putting its plans on hold a year or so ago because of the then already-sagging economy, Wawa Inc. is now moving ahead with "a targeted, well-thought-out growth plan...to enter a new market, specifically, Florida," CEO Howard Stoeckel said in his latest Bird's Eye View blog entry.
The Sunshine State expansion, previously reported in CSP Daily News (click here), was in part driven by loyal customers who have migrated south, but who told the company that they "miss their Wawa." Stoeckel said, "While we don't aspire to be a national company, we've decided that now the time has come for us to follow their lead and migrate south with them."
He added that the company is still about two years away from opening stores in its new "Wawaland" of central Florida. "We expect that by the end of 2012, the Wawa flock will be spreading its wings and flying south to share the Wawa brand and values with our southern-most customers," he said.
According to earlier reports, the company envisions opening up to 15 central Florida locations in two years, but could ultimately open as many as 100 stores in the state.
"We will continue to focus on...delivering the Wawa brand experience that our customers know and love. We are committed to continued growth for our associates, 8,000 of whom are associate owners. We are also committed to growing the more than one million customers we serve every day. We want to be able to provide our customers value well into the future, and we know that growth in the future means we must spread our wings outside of our current five-state area," Stoeckel said of the expansion and the philosophy behind it.
Click hereto read the full blog entry.
Wawa convenience stores typically offers customers numerous Wawa brands, such as Wawa coffee (more than 195 million cups sold annually); the Sizzli, Wawa's hot breakfast sandwich; a full-service deli; Wawa Bakery; Wawa's built-to-order hoagies (more than 52 million sold annually); and Wawa's beverage line of dairy products, juices and teas, among many other products.
The Wawa, Pa.-based company currently operates approximately 575 c-stores in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia.
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