There’s a new food program rolling out at True North Energy’s convenience stores—one that has Chuck Kronyak, senior food service manager, excited.
“We’ve created some new packaging that’s branded, and we’re calling our products Truly Tasty,” he said at CSP’s Foodservice Forum on June 12 in Schaumburg, Illinois. “We have a logo that goes with it, so we created some branding as a halo around our food.”
In the past, the company used chicken nuggets from a big-name company, but it has switched to a smaller vendor, he said.
“I found chicken tenders that were outstanding,” Kronyak said.
Brecksville, Ohio-based True North Energy operates truenorth, a chain of large-format convenience stores operating in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Kronyak also found boneless Buffalo wings from a different, smaller supplier, he said. “The product is really tasty,” he said. “It’s quality.”
- True North Energy is No. 44 on CSP’s 2026 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.
Kronyak added that this food item is not like a regular product one would find in the marketplace. Because it is more obscure, “we can kind of own it, and so we have created some new packaging that's engineered to hold the food well, [and] has all the ventilation in the boxes along with that.”
He also added snackable, poppable-type bites to the menu, including potato products and bacon mac-and-cheese bites.
"I look for all kinds of bites," Kronyak said. "It’s great for those afternoon snacking-type things, and so we’ve created the packaging and the vehicle to do it, and then we can start bringing in these items.”
Kronyak also wants to do limited-time offers on poppables while maintaining a foundation of items such as chicken tenders and boneless wings.
“Those will always do well, but then [we’ll] start having LTOs in these poppables—and then the ones that really stick, we can keep around longer,” he said.
Potatoes are a must, Kronyak said.
“Customers love having a potato on hot days,” he said, adding that they’ve created Truly Tasty branding that will be highlighted in their apps.
Truenorth also will offer food bundles and have “some great artwork on our POP [point of purchase] for the case and our window signs, so it's gonna shout something new at truenorth that our guests haven’t seen before,” Kronyak said.
In switching away from a name-brand product, which was to start in July, Kronyak said he wasn’t worried about a decline in sales because sales weren’t very robust to begin with. The quality of the new product, he said, is noticeably better.
“It’s a juicy product,” he said. “It’s not dry. It’s not mushy, and it’s crispy. I’m absolutely certain it’s gonna be nothing but upshot.”
Cashing in on catering
truenorth also does catering, Kronyak said. He’s installed warmers to help in accommodating the catering orders.
“We’ll have orders of 100 pieces of bone-in chicken and things like that,” he said.
They cater parties, baseball teams and more, he added.
Kronyak said he’s excited about rolling out their new program, which features a better product.
“We want to create a premium, hot grab and go,” he said. “We’re not ready to do made-to-order, and we’re not ready to roll out fryers everywhere, but the thing that we can do pretty quickly is putting in these new kitchens to do this component food program. I have a model of a 7-foot footprint of equipment that can fit even small stores, that has a main table, the oven and some prep tables.”
True North Energy operated 193 c-stores as of Jan. 1. In 2024, True North Energy purchased 15 stores from Antigo, Wisconsin-based Wagner Oil. A year earlier, the chain purchased Medina, Ohio-based Free Enterprises, which included four convenience stores, a wholesale fuel business and a dealer network. True North also acquired 19 stores in 2021 with the acquisition of Titletown Oil Corp., Green Bay, Wisconsin, and 25 stores in 2019 with the purchase of Schmuckal Oil Co., Traverse City, Michigan.
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