When road engineers James Wills and Harold Swann in 1926 saw Model Ts and wood-paneled trucks creating the earliest traffic jams, they jumped into the business of delivering gasoline, motor oil and kerosene, eventually becoming one of the biggest fuel distributors in the Mid-Atlantic.
Fast forward to 2018, Wills’ great-grandsons made a dramatic pivot in their family’s legacy business, doubling down on the complexities of best-in-class convenience foodservice.
That brings the story into the modern day, when the now 100-year evolution of Wills Group reflects the plot twists that the fuel-and-convenience channel itself has undergone, from petroleum-product distribution to gas-and-smokes service stations to made-to-order in-store kitchens.
- Wills Group/Dash In is No. 122 on CSP’s2026 Top 202 ranking of convenience-store chains by U.S. store count.
After four generations, the La Plata, Maryland-based chain of more than 60 stores has entered the scaling-up phase of its latest journey, having reinvented itself again with its new “Series 3” c-stores now rolling into North Carolina and South Carolina.
“Each generation has challenged the next generation by asking, ‘How do you move the ball forward?’” said Julian Blacklock “Blackie” Wills III (pictured above), president, CEO and chairman of Wills Group. “We’re excited about our growth potential and proud to celebrate this milestone.”
Though Blackie Wills III refers to the company’s centennial as its latest milestone, he may as well be talking about its next-gen iteration of convenience stores.
In early June, the company blew into North Carolina, opening its first Series 3 location in that state. Five more are under construction in North Carolina, with three more new builds going up in Maryland and Delaware. Dash In also has stores in Virginia. The newly opened, 5,600-square-foot store in Concord, North Carolina, in the Charlotte metro area, features a full kitchen, indoor seating and an extended beer cave and wine selection.
Company officials said they intend to expand the Dash In footprint, ready to build a chain that ranks among the Top 50 convenience retailers the United States by 2030. CSP’s own Top 202 ranking of c-stores by store count has its No. 50 chain at 141 stores. Wills Group ranked No. 122 in the 2026 Top 202 ranking.
Wills Group has been at the precipice of achievement before, scaling peaks to mirror several turning points in the industry’s own evolution:
- Fuel distribution: Starting out as a petroleum-product distributor, the company became one of the largest branded suppliers of fuel oil and gasoline in the Mid-Atlantic.
- C-store M&A: While the company started its own chain of branded convenience stores, the exit of major oil companies allowed an unprecedented period of growth through acquisitions. A single acquisition in 2000 involved 137 Texaco- and Shell-branded locations.
- Franchising: As its c-store expertise grew, so did its involvement with franchising. The company employed the concept on multiple levels, including franchising its Dash In brand and becoming a franchisee of multiple fast-casual foodservice brands.
- Full kitchen: With its newest incarnation of the convenience model, Wills Group embraces a sit-down, fast-casual, made-on-site retail format that is as much a restaurant as it is a convenience store or gasoline station.
“The Series 3 prototype gave us a model we believe we can scale,” Blackie Wills III said. “Ideally, we’d like to reach a pace of roughly 20 new stores per year as we continue our growth across the Carolinas and beyond.”
Petroleum roots
In 1926, two engineers from what was then the Maryland State Road Commission, James Wills and Harold Swann, saw an opportunity in the emerging need for transportation fuel.
Starting with railcar delivery, the two eventually invested in a fleet of trucks and bulk storage facilities, gaining greater control of their supply chain. In time, their distribution system would bring Texaco-branded kerosine, gasoline and motor oil to communities throughout southern Maryland.
By the mid-1930s, gun-style oil burners began replacing coal, opening a new opportunity with residential heating oil. But transportation fuel supply remained a core business, with the company securing major government contracts like those supporting construction of the Potomac River Bridge through the end of the decade.
In 1948, Swann died, leaving James Wills to buy out the company over several years.
As the demand for energy rose, the company expanded both its commercial and residential supply operations across southern Maryland, while at the same time building a retail network of service stations through new construction and acquisitions.
James Wills led the company until his death in 1957. His wife, Julia, took over the business, becoming one of the first female executives in the region. In 1961, the business transferred from the founding generation to Julian Blacklock “Blackie” Wills Sr., who led the company until his retirement in 1988.
During the tenure of Blackie Wills Sr., the company diversified into related businesses, including heating installation services and auto parts sales, in addition to gasoline and service stations. While some of those operations remain, the company consolidated or sold others, honing its direction toward its growing retail-fuels business.
The company built its first convenience store in 1979 in Annapolis, Maryland. That success ushered in a new era for Wills Group, leading to the opening of its first Dash In store in 1981 in Laurel, Maryland.
Retail expansion
In 1988, Blackie Wills Sr.’s son, Julian Blacklock “Lock” Wills Jr., took over the company and led it through a period of expansion, both in store count and business enterprises.
Through the 1980s and into the ’90s, the company’s c-store network grew to 30 locations, typically 2,200-square-foot gas-and-go facilities with canopies. The chain’s most popular offer was foodservice, specifically fried chicken with potato wedges.
“That made us famous for the first 15 years,” said Mark Samuels, executive vice president of convenience retailing for Wills Group.
Samuels started with the company in 1997 as an area manager. By that time, the company had transitioned to branded food service programs, including Subway, Taco Bell Express, Church’s Chicken, Dunkin’ Donuts and TCBY. He said the company executed their branded programs in many ways, including retrofits, bringing in franchisees, being franchisees themselves or having as many as three different foodservice brands in a single location.
Then in the early 2000s, the major oil companies began shedding assets, providing Wills Group with an opportunity to expand. Between 2000-2015, the company landed six different acquisitions from Shell and Exxon’s portfolio of properties. The activity helped grow their fuel distributorship to where they supply about 300 retail locations today, including about 60 Dash In locations.
Within that initial mix, they converted many to Dash In sites, some through a franchise agreement with site operators. Samuels said the Dash In brand grew both organically and through franchisees, hitting 85 locations at one point.
Toward the end of that intense M&A period, the company began terminating its branded foodservice partnerships, ultimately deciding to prioritize the Dash In brand both inside the store and eventually the canopy itself with its Dash In fuel brand.
Today, most of the locations they supply with fuel still have the Shell and Exxon brands, but the next-generation stores going forward will have Dash In-branded fuel.
“I think fuel is the backbone of our company,” said Joe Wills, executive vice president of fuels marketing for Wills Group and brother of Blackie Wills III. “We’ve been in business 100 years and throughout, fuel has played an integral part of our service to customers. Yes, we’ve diversified into retail convenience and car washes, but fuel has been the foundation of what we are.”
As Joe Wills notes, alongside many new builds or where retrofits were possible, the company dove into the car wash business. Today, it runs 64 car washes, with most being roller-overs. They started installing conveyor car washes in 2019, now having seven in their network. Its “Splash In” brand ties back to a loyalty program that unifies the chain’s car wash, fuel and in store rewards.
For Wills Group, car washes are the third leg of a stool that makes up its go-to business model.
“We’re convenience-retailing operators,” said Blackie Wills III. “We want to provide a good guest experience. That can be food service, but it’s also knowing customers can take care of their cars. Those businesses are very compatible, since customers will typically purchase a car wash with fuel or food.”
Rethinking c-stores
Blackie Wills III joined the company in 2007, when he began working his way up the ranks. In 2016, the company asked him to rethink its c-store paradigm, which led to the creation of a task force in 2018 to bring ideas to fruition. The project involved researching brand development, creating prototype designs, reviewing menus, examining the guest experience and reimagining the meaning of convenience.
They considered best-in-class retailers like Sheetz, Wawa, Royal Farms, QuikTrip and Casey’s General Stores in developing their strategy, finally opening its first Series 3 prototype store in 2023.
Their first focus was architecture and store buildout. They wanted a modern feel in terms of fixtures, graphics and finishes. They prioritized ease-of-use and high-tech touch points, including bathrooms that were accessible, comfortable and automated for no-touch hygiene. The store shelving would not go over 48 inches, allowing for visibility and easy navigation. And they wanted to offer a foodservice and beverage program that would rival the best fast-casual restaurants, complete with the service and hospitality associated with those channels.
After opening its first location and the successive Series 3 stores, sales told the story, surpassing expectations and giving the team permission to scale up, according to Mauricio Rivas, director of Dash In corporate operations.
“With our first Series 3 location, we were going into a market where we had zero visibility. People didn’t know who we were,” Rivas said. “Still, we had double the forecast in revenue at that location. It was lightbulb moment.”
The initial success “flipped the switch,” Rivas said. “We could replicate this, do well and roll it out at other stores.”
Delving further, Samuels said their new Series 3 stores average about 50% more in total sales compared to their previous store formats. Foodservice sales were more than double the chain’s average. In the Series 3 stores, the percentage of prepared food and dispensed beverage sales compared to the total in-store were more than 40%, well above the 28.5% industry average, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), Alexandria, Virginia.
The company is moving ahead with three versions of the Series 3 design, each tailored to specific lot sizes and local regulations. Their basic site is 3,400 square feet, with no in-store seating. The 4,800-square foot design incorporates seating. Then its largest layout is 5,600 square feet, which includes beer caves, wine racks and additional cooler vault space. Certain states won’t allow beer and wine, so their typical go-to for any given state is the 4,800-square-foot design.
Upon researching current and new markets, the Carolinas presented compelling potential, with available real estate, strong competitive opportunities and a favorable business climate. After its first grand opening in the Charlotte, North Carolina, market this past June, the company is on track to open 18 more locations in their five-state zone of growth by the end of 2027.
“The North Carolina business climate is attractive,” Samuels said, “and we see opportunities in markets where we can offer something differentiated for guests.”
Foodservice focus
Generally, Wills Group’s foodservice mantra is to elevate what consumers may tradition ally believe to be convenience store or “gas station” food. Samuels describes that base line as “heat-and-eat fried foods, hot dogs, freezer-to-fryer food or items heated up in an oven.”
Series 3 Dash In stores have full, made-to-order kitchens that include flat top griddles, three-tier convention ovens and fryers. Kitchen chefs start with raw proteins, fresh vegetables, items with less preservatives, fresh ground beef, ground breakfast sausages, breads and pizzas baked in the store. The chain does not use commissaries, just a general food distributor that brings base product in every day.
Menu items include all-day breakfast sandwiches and croissants, chicken wings and tenders, “craft” burgers made with premium ingredients, sandwiches and wraps, a chicken quesadilla called a “Stackadilla,” grilled burritos and flatbread pizzas.
Another part of their program is a unique “beverage wall” of on-tap juices and teas delivered through 15 heads, as well as three bean-to-cup machines that grind and brew coffee to order. The beverage lineup also includes six fruit-drink machines and a self-service, made-to-order smoothie maker.
Not every food option they first brought in was successful. Samuels said they had a doughnut machine they thought could go from batter to powdering the sugar in 90 seconds. But they found out that doughnut batter is “temperamental,” he said. It’s temperature sensitive and can easily become dense or come out the wrong size or shape.
They learned lessons on the operational side as well. While much of their open-facing kitchen design worked well, their back-of-the-house area needed organizing. After the first Series 3 store, they were able to change the setup to improve efficiency.
Hospitality and data
Beyond physical changes to stores, staff expertise and training has recentered around foodservice, and specifically, customer service, Samuels said. He cites a new guest experience training module called “DAS+H,” which stands for Delivering Authentic Service Plus Hospitality, that encompasses several responsibilities and roles, including that of store “concierge.”
The position exists to make customers feel welcomed, answer questions and help people find what they want.
Another major piece of the program is store cleanliness. Samuels said staff must “build credibility” for its foodservice by keeping the location “immaculately clean.” That means trash emptied outside, clean windows, forecourt upkeep, removing used chewing gum on pumps or oil stains from the concrete. Then, the store itself must be clean, bright and in stock, he said.
“If the store is clean, if employees wear crisp uniforms and are welcoming, now I can walk back to the food area, see a full, open kitchen and see all the cues that we’re a credible foodservice operation,” he said.
That high level of maintenance and service is a differentiator, said Rivas, because not many convenience retailers want to make the commitment.
Rivas, whose operational resume includes Chick-fil-A, said new employee training times at Dash In went from five-to-10 hours to between 30 and 40, augmenting online time with certifications earned at supervised training stores. The face-to-face time has taken on new importance.
Prior to changes in its training process, new employees noted a disconnect with onboarding. They felt it was dispassionate and impersonal. Rivas tasked store managers with walking employees through the process, even having managers hand deliver their first uniforms to employees.
But warm vibes alone don’t spell success, Rivas said. Employees learn how excellence in customer service translates directly to the store’s bottom line, so staff keeps a close eye on monthly sales data and other in-store metrics.
These foundational changes wouldn’t permeate without support from the top, Rivas said. In addition to himself, the company brought in new executives from hospitality chains like Marriott and major retailers like Walmart to help change its internal thinking.
“We’re not the biggest player,” Rivas said. “But we’ve got to get big and punch at a higher weight class.”
Values and change
So, how does a company survive in an industry that is constantly evolving? Van Mitchell, president of MSI Inc., La Plata, Maryland, believes the key is having a core set of foundational values, ones that don’t waver or lose sight of the larger good despite the need for drastic change.
Mitchell grew up around the Wills family, having been a childhood friend of Lock Wills Jr. Mitchell joined the company’s board of directors in 1996 and watched the company navigate many instances of deep, fundamental change.
After multiple transformations, Mitchell feels honesty and integrity are consistent throughout the company’s 100-year history. In board meetings over the decades, Mitchell said the focus has been treating all business partners with fairness and respect, be they customers, employees, competitors or major oil reps.
“That’s tough to do and remain consistent through four generations of leadership transition,” Mitchell said, noting how he has experienced similar changes over 40 years of running his own business. “It’s a testament to the founder, where principled, traditional values in an open market stay the course.”
One of its biggest commitments was to the business itself, including family members and employees with shares in the company. Even as a private business, the company operates with a competitive mindset, benchmarking itself to publicly traded companies, Mitchell said.
That rule fuels the team’s competitive nature and its penchant for reinvesting in the company. Over the decades, Wills Group has consistently beat Wall Street in real dollar growth, he said.
“We see pressure in public companies to do well, then flip and cash out,” Mitchell said. “It’s never been part of the equation [at Wills Group]. And employees sense that. A lot of our employees with longevity know that their pension profit-sharing will exceed the market over time.”
One of their latest investments has been with data collection. Denny East, senior director of merchandising for Wills Group, said contracting with a point-of-sale data collection firm allows the company to move into new markets with the right goods.
East’s job is to identify top-selling products as well as items that would fit in a first-class c-store environment, such as nutritional snacks. But his team must also properly place merchandise, so related items sit together and facilitate an on-the-go shopping experience. Technologies behind planograms, item selection and product placement become critical when scaling up, he said.
The company is “willing to spend funds to get data and execute planograms,” said East. “It’s clear when you walk into stores. The company cares about customers and their experience … and is willing to spend what it takes to get things right.”
Future vision
What was clear to company leadership was the precarious balance of building a best-in-class c-store chain while taking on the daunting table stakes.
“If we were going to compete in the space, we’d have to update, not just iterate,” Samuels said. “We would have to do a step change. Be known for something. Differentiate. We can’t differentiate on price, so what’s hard to replicate?”
As Dash In tries to scale its success with each new Series 3 store, the larger goal of building a brand draws closer, Mitchell said, noting how the big picture may be one of perception. Wills Group is currently an amalgamation of multiple brands, he said.
“A driver going down a stretch of highway may see a Tiger Mart, a bp, a Shell or a private label Dash In, but no one knows the size and scale of the company,” Mitchell said, noting how all of those branded locations may have ties to Wills Group. “On the other hand, you may see four Sheetz locations along the way and think they’re on every corner.”
He said the company has been pushing hard to get the Dash In name on the canopy, invest in the inside of the store and upgrade its food offers. The investment will pay off if early numbers are an indication.
“The question is how quickly can we transition from A to B,” he said. “You can have a presence like Royal Farms or 7-Eleven.”
But beyond building stores, another key step is building a relationship with the community, something that is already part of Dash In’s DNA, Mitchell said. Company involvement with state and local authorities, for instance, has been very consistent.
“There isn’t a local senator, representative or governor who doesn’t know them,” Mitchell said. “Not from being brash but privately doing the work and doing the right thing.”
Regarding charitable giving and volunteerism, the company gives back in three general areas: addressing food insecurity, revitalizing public spaces and improving local waterways. The betterment of the community and the success of the company are intertwined, said Blackie Wills III.
“We’re excited about our growth potential going forward,” he said. “We’re proud to celebrate our fourth generation of leadership. Our longstanding family values translate into our corporate values, where we’ve long been about financial discipline, making sound decisions and great governance.
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