Convenience-store chains have big growth plans for 2026, whether that’s through building new stores or making acquisitions where it makes sense.
- Pilot Co. is No. 16on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. Parker's Kitchen is No. 73, Weigel's is No. 84, Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores is No. 15 and Englefield Oil is No. 59.
CSP Daily News editors spoke with some of the top leaders in convenience to find out what their growth strategy for 2026 is. Here are their responses.
These answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Brad Anderson, president of Retail, Pilot Co.
“Our strategy heading into 2026 is primarily focused on organic growth and strategic infrastructure expansion. Our biggest organic play is the continued momentum of our modernization initiative. We know remodeled locations see significantly higher customer return rates, so updating our store is paramount to our core business growth. In parallel, we execute new network expansion through strategic builds and partnerships. We continue to open new travel centers, targeting key freight corridors and high-volume leisure travel routes where our amenities are most needed. We look for white spaces where we can serve both professional drivers and auto travelers.” —Chuck Ulie
John Rhine, CFO, Parker’s Kitchen
“In 2026, we’ll be breaking ground on two new-to-industry locations per month, and our growth strategy is focused on rapidly expanding markets across Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, as well as areas we believe are currently underserved. For us, organic growth delivers the strongest economic return, especially in markets where high-potential, undeveloped sites are still available. If we can replicate or outperform the assets of competitors already in the market, then building ground-up is the most efficient path. However, if we identify a market where competitors have strong locations that we can’t easily replicate through new development, then we’re open to considering an acquisition strategy. That said, acquisitions tend to be a more expensive approach for us—current industry valuations are elevated, and the cost to rebrand and reposition acquired sites adds to that investment. So, our philosophy is simple: Grow organically where it creates the most value and use acquisitions strategically when market conditions justify it.” —Diane Adam
Doug Yawberry, president and CEO, Weigel’s
“We are, historically and continue to be, a new-to-industry [focused chain]. I mean we build everything, and we like to do that because we keep consistent. We would never throw the opportunity to do some M&A out. That opportunity may come to us eventually, and if we did, the right opportunity, we’d take advantage of it. But we continue the NTI piece, and yes, we’ll get to 100 [stores]. We put together a formal 10-year plan, which we call our North Star plan. And we know where we're headed for the next 10 years, and then each year we do a really heavy strategic plan that supports that 10-year plan. And the 100-plus stores is definitely part of that. And there and beyond, actually. And then the growth of what we do from food and our commissary part of our business, and the car wash part of our business. So, we have a lot of that, we've got a lot of that laid out for the next 10 years what our growth path is.” —Hannah Hammond
Patrick McLean, chief marketing officer, Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores
“We’re in a really interesting time because we've now got a footprint that is nearly national. And we've got a considerable amount of reach across the country, 660-plus locations now. And where we were maybe growing at 30 to 40 a year, I think we're now looking more like 20 a year, as a general range. But the other thing we're doing is we have this program we call The Road Ahead, which is our remodel program. So, we'll do 20 new locations, roughly 20 new stores every year, and then we'll also go back and remodel 40 of the stores within our footprint. And a lot of those remodels, they feel like new stores because we're going back – because we’ve been in business for 60 years, some of our stores are really quite old at this point. And we've been refreshing them along the way, but we're picking our spots where we know that we can get more out of a location if we do an upgrade. And so, we're doing 40 upgrades a year. It’s going to feel like we're doing 60 new stores a year. And so, the growth for us in terms of footprint will come in combination of upgrading stores to get more value out of the location and then adding new locations into the footprint where we see appropriate.” —Hannah Hammond
Ashley Englefield DeWitt, president, Englefield Retail
“We’ll grow where the numbers make sense—by reinvesting in our existing stores, building great new ones and exploring acquisitions that fit our footprint. We’re studying markets with strong population growth, new communities to serve and room for a high-quality convenience offering.” —Chuck Ulie
F.W. (Will) Englefield V, president, Englefield Energy
“We are evaluating all opportunities that come our way from acquisitions to organic growth in new markets. We know our strengths and look to use those as our guiding principle when evaluating any growth. It’s important to not just grow for the sake of growth, but capitalize on opportunities where we know our brand, our team members and customers will thrive.” —Chuck Ulie
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