WASHINGTON, Pa. -- Coen Oil Co., which launched the Ruff Creek Markets convenience-store brand in early 2015, has appointed Ed Burcher to the newly created position of chief operating officer for Coen Markets.
Burcher has been working with Coen Markets in a consulting capacity for the past year and a half, the company said, and it has decided to expand that relationship.
"Ed will work together with Mary Beth Kohl to continue our growth and focus to achieve best practices," Charles McIlvaine, chairman, and Andy McIlvaine, CEO and president of Coen Oil, said in an announcement.
Burcher will have leadership responsibility for foodservice, category management, operations, and IT for the convenience stores. Kohl is general manager and director of retail for the chain.
"In reporting to and collaborating with Ed, Mary Beth will apply her strong skills and lead retail operations and maintenance," the McIlvaines said. "We believe that this division of labor best positions us to manage growth and achieve excellence."
Burcher is an industry veteran. His experience includes 18 years at Wawa, starting as a customer service representative, then advancing to store leader and then district leader. He was promoted to Wawa’s head office to be the lead manager for fresh foods and foodservice in the marketing department.
Following his time at Wawa, Petro-Canada recruited him to build its company-operated network with a new retail licensee program. He later led the design and implementation of the Neighbours convenience store brand, a foodservice-focused format in Canada. He oversaw the rollout and refinement of the prototypes and eventually opened more than 20 new locations under this format and developed an alternate brand, the smaller-format Neighbours Coffee, which grew to more than 50 locations. He also created and executed the foodservice menu across all of the more than 600 c-stores in the Petro Canada network.
"We have aggressive plans for Coen Markets to realize our vision of making our company the regional favorite convenience chain in our market area with the strongest customer loyalty," said Charles and Andy McIlvaine. "Our team working together with communication and collaboration is our best chance to realize this vision."
Washington, Pa.-based Coen Oil operates 28 Ruff Creek Markets convenience stores in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
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