4 Foodservice Initiatives at GPM

RICHMOND, Va. — GPM Investments LLC has been busy with foodservice, from a new Dunkin’ restaurant and expanded DoorDash partnership, to a growing slushie machine program and new chicken sandwich.

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GPM's wholly owned subsidiary, Broyles Hospitality LLC, last month unveiled its fourth Next Generation Dunkin’ restaurant, which serves as the company’s 11th Dunkin’ franchise. The new 2,815 square-foot location in Gray, Tenn., employs 25 crew members and is open seven days a week.

The modern design features openness, and colors and materials help to create an approachable, positive and energetic environment, said the company.

Dunkin’s signature cold beverages are now served through an innovative tap system serving eight consistently cold beverages such as coffees, iced teas, cold brew coffee and nitro-infused cold brew coffee. Crew members also use top-quality flavor-maximizing espresso machines to make handcrafted drinks to order.

The new Dunkin’ is a DD Green Achievement restaurant, which is designed to save 25% more energy compared with a standard Dunkin’ restaurant.

To give back to the community, Broyles Hospitality, in partnership with the Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation, has also donated $5,000 to Ballad Health’s Pet Therapy Program in conjunction with this store opening.

GPM last month expanded its DoorDash program to more than 600 stores nationwide when it added 300-plus locations. GPM’s DoorDash alliance spans 19 states and several brands in the GPM portfolio. The initial DoorDash pilot with GPM began in select Richmond, Va., store locations, and the rollout continued during the pandemic to provide customers with safe shopping solutions. The selected locations were chosen based on their ability to support the most popular purchase items.

Currently, GPM’s program offers more than 300 items for customers to choose from. The most popular item ordered through DoorDash? “Surprisingly, Gushers,” said GPM category manager Jim Rastetter.

“Offering a choice of how consumers receive products from our stores is more important than ever,” her said. “There is a significant customer base who use our DoorDash program, and feedback has been great so far. As consumers continue to use on-demand delivery services like DoorDash, we hope to continue bringing this type of service to our stores.”

GPM is introducing the new Tangerango flavor frozen beverage, which is available in one of the 823 GPM convenience stores now carrying Frazil slushie machines.

The rollout has grown to more than 900 units in more than 800 GPM locations, and GPM is marking the expansion with the Tangerango flavor in a limited-time offer (LTO) from May 19 to Sept. 7.

GPM brands include Fas Mart, Shore Stop, Scotchman, BreadBox, Young's, Li'l Cricket, Next Door Store, Village Pantry, Apple Market, Jiffi Stop, Admiral, Roadrunner Markets, Jiffy Food Marts, E-Z Mart, 1 Stop and TownStar.

There is not 100% coverage due to space restrictions.

There’s a new fried chicken filet sandwich being sold at 150 GPM locations with value menu delis including Fas Mart, EZ Mart, Village Pantry, Scotchman and others.

The value menu, which the company said it introduced last summer to offer customers convenient, affordable and quality foods during difficult economic times, includes hot dogs, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, fried chicken drumsticks and now a fried chicken filet sandwich.

“It’s a fried crispy and juicy all-breast meat chicken filet with Southern homestyle breading on a bun with two slices of pickle,” said Ray Zeiher, senior category manager of foodservice at GPM.

• GPM Investments is No. 7 on CSP’s Top 40 Update to the 2020 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.

GPM Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of ARKO Corp., is based in Richmond, Va., and operates or supplies stores in 33 states and Washington, D.C. GPM has about 3,000 locations comprised of about 1,350 company-operated stores and 1,600 dealer sites to which it supplies fuel.