Joseph “Tony” DeSerto, hot food category director at RaceTrac, Atlanta, was a finalist for foodservice, large chains, in CSP’s 2025 Category Manager of the Year (CMOY) awards.
This year's CMOY awards featured 14 winners across seven categories. Winners from both small (99 or fewer stores) and large chains (100 stores or more) were selected for the first time in each category.
- RaceTrac is No. 17 on CSP’s 2025 Top 40 Update to the 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. Watch for the full 2025 Top 202 ranking in the June issue of CSP magazine and in CSP Daily News.
Here is the Q&A from his conversation with CSP on continuing to support RaceTrac’s growth into new markets, not scaring away core customers and more:
What’s new and exciting in your category?
We are most excited about wrapping up our core RFPs (Request for Proposals) and contract awards for our core pantry list. This has helped us elevate our core offers so we can now invest more time and energy into LTOs (limited-time offers) and seasonal change overs. We have a consistent menu and offer across all of our non-legacy sites, and this has helped us deliver on guest and associate experiences across our fleet. This level-setting of offers has also allowed us to establish consistent POGS (planograms) and presentation, which allows speed to market and reduced friction on quarterly resets for our operations partners.
What do you love about your category?
I love that the hot food category is the hero—and all the pressure and stress that comes with this responsibility to our business. As hot food category managers, we have the responsibility to be a destination driver. There is a ton of pressure to innovative but not be so innovative that you scare your core guests away. So, what I love most is channeling that stress and finding a balance in core item enhancements and delivering LTOs that are designed to drive conversion/trial but also surprise and delight our core segment.
What trends are you watching?
I continue to monitor better-for-you options and special diets. This is not our typical core guest, but the demand will grow. My wife is in foodservice for K-12 and is delivering halal, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and other nutrient dense/better-for-you ingredients to our youth. This is becoming a focus and adopted into Generation Alpha’s need state. We cannot lose sight of our future guest segments’ expectations in food assortment and the fact that clean labels are an under supported offer in our segment.
What products performed well in the past year?
This should come as no surprise in our segment. The best performers were all sweet and spicy flavor profiles that are meaty offers with high-calorie and high-protein density.
What are your goals/most looking forward to in 2025?
I am looking forward most to continuing to support our store growth into new markets. We have density across Texas, Florida and Georgia, and it excites me that we keep adding new states and markets to our portfolio. These new markets allow us to introduce our food brand with our best foot forward. As a company, we have invested into being a food destination, and these new markets get the luxury of seeing where we are now as opposed to where we were. My goal is and will always be to be better tomorrow than we were today.
What are the biggest challenges?
Associate retention/turnover is the biggest challenge. When it comes to the labor associated with running a top-tier food program, associate retention unlocks success. I continue to follow the KISS method (Keep It Simple, Stupid) in my programs that all go through a crawl, walk and then run launch timeline. This approach can take almost a year, and that takes patience (which is a challenge for me, too). However, doing things right, rather than right now, ensures entry-level associates with little to no food experience can execute at a high level across our entire fleet.
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