This episode is sponsored by Cenex®
In this episode of “At Your Convenience,” CSP Editor Rachel Gignac talks with Brian Ferguson, chief marketing officer at EG America, Westborough, Massachusetts.
Ferguson talks about EG's loyalty program, SmartRewards, foodservice offerings and the chain's investment in retail media and artificial intelligence.
“At Your Convenience” brings industry experts and analysts together with CSP editors to discuss the latest in c-store news and trends. From mergers and acquisitions to foodservice and technology, the podcast delivers the story straight to listeners in short-format episodes, perfect for the morning commute or a quick break at the office.
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Listen to their conversation above, or read the transcript here, which has been edited for length and clarity:
Rachel Gignac: You've been at EG a year, so how have things changed since you've been with the company?
Brian Ferguson: That's a great question. And yes, a year has gone by really quickly. So I joined EG America last February and we're off to a fantastic start. So hit the ground running, looking at everything we have, that we can improve, that we can grow and that we can get more sophisticated, more advanced across category management, across merchandising, across food and beverage, our loyalty platform. So really focused right out of the gate on making sure we just had the absolute best talent in the industry help the company grow, to expand our business, to grow our business, be more important and better partners with all the key suppliers in the industry. So we've got a great portfolio, I'll call it, of just best-in-class talent, whether it's category management, loyalty, digital commerce, merchandising support, food and beverage. So we've done a lot there. The next thing was really just getting back to basics, right? So, what are the core elements of the business? What's the good, bad and ugly? How do we really improve those areas that are towering strengths for us? How do we bridge key gaps in the business where we might be underdeveloped or we need to grow share?
And then just really building durable win-win partnerships with all of our major partners and suppliers in the industry. So they know a lot about our business and a lot about the industry. So where do we have room to grow? Where do we have room to accelerate? And then we got hard at work on our loyalty program. Back in the day, EG America, Cumberland Farms, really were a groundbreaking technology company with some of the technologies and smart pay capabilities that we created and designed, frankly, first to market like 10 years ago. But since then, hadn't really kept up to pace with the most sophisticated tools, whether that's loyalty or CRM [Customer Relationship Management] or social media or all the marketing suite that our customers expect, that our guests expect and that our team members expect. So we spent a lot of time reworking our loyalty platform, with great partners like Par-Stuzo, starting to work, and eventually launching a retail media network. So we've done a tremendous amount in my first 13 months, and we're really starting to see the great benefits from all those investments.
- EG America is No. 6 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.
Gignac: You mentioned the retail media network. What have been some successes since its launch in April?
Ferguson: We partnered with a fantastic company, Axonet, which met our goals, met our needs. Their capabilities are just really well aligned with where we want to go with our retail media network, how we want it to manifest itself inside and outside of our stores. And so we got started in November. And, as you know, building a retail media network, it's kind of a walk and then run. So we're still walking. We're still launching our first campaigns, reading the results of those, working with our partners who've invested in our retail media network, and we're ready to run. So as we get into the summer and into the fall, the investments of retail media campaigns that we run will really accelerate towards the back half of the year.
Gignac: What's the importance of those partnerships with vendors and some other companies that you're working with? Why does that help so much with retail media?
Ferguson: I think Axonet has helped us because they're an aggregator. EG America is a very large company. We've got almost 1,600 stores in 30 states. But when we want to reach certain audiences and when big retailers, whether they're in our industry or outside of our industry, want to reach new audiences, while we're in 1,600 stores in 30 states, we still don't have the scale that some advertisers and some marketers are looking for. So Axonet allows us to aggregate with other retailers in the space, go to market, approach large retailers who want to connect with c-store guests, whether it's on the forecourt or inside the store. Really just an extra opportunity, whether it's on our digital screens, our overhead announcements within our digital platforms to introducing new brands and, frankly, new retailers to our customers and our team members or just amplify the campaigns of some of our great partners out there, whether it's in the beverage space, the food space, you name it. It's really valuable.
Gignac: How is the company utilizing data when it comes to retail media?
Ferguson: Data is kind of the underlying current, the electricity of everything we do. We pride ourselves on making data-driven decisions, whether it's inside the store, within a retail media network, within our loyalty platform. It informs everything we do, whether it's sales data, whether it's consumer insights or whether it's industry data. But we also don't do, maybe an overused term, analysis paralysis. So data is only one component of a business strategy. It helps guide you, helps inform you, you read the business. But there's also a little art involved.
Rachel: Well, I'm excited to see where that goes. Tell me more about SmartRewards. What does a loyalty program offer for customers and for the company?
Ferguson: SmartRewards is our relationship with our guests, our team members and our supplier partners. The launch of our new SmartRewards platform happened just this past week in partnership with Par. Our aspiration is not just to surprise and delight, but to have a great relationship with our customers. We know they have choices—where they visit, where they spend their time and money, what coffee they drink. So it allows us to really build a relationship with each individual guest. It allows us to reward them for their business, for visiting us more often, and to differentiate EG America and our brands from our competitors. It also gives our guests the most modern, sophisticated, lightning-fast user experience. Whether you're buying something, redeeming an offer, updating your profile, looking for a store or just doing business, our new platform and SmartRewards app are truly cutting-edge. At the end of the day, we want your relationship with EG America and all of our 10 brands to be satisfying. We want you to tell your friends about the great products, great prices, great rewards—and how easy we are to do business with.
Rachel: And in creating that relationship with the customers, is there any personalization involved? How do you get to know them and what makes them want to come back to the store?
Ferguson: That’s actually one of the really important reasons why we selected Par. It gives us the ability, through their open commerce solution and AI technology, to curate, craft and grow our relationship with each individual customer. If you're a soda drinker who also likes candy or salty snacks, or if you like pizza, fuel every other day, and on the off days you buy lottery or breakfast sandwiches—those behaviors help us understand your preferences. The millions of people in our loyalty platform all deserve a personal relationship. Now we can interact with you based on what’s important to you. Whether you're a coffee drinker, tea drinker or bottled water drinker, you can share that with us, and we can make sure you have the best experience, the best deals and offers based on your personal preferences.
Rachel: You said the buzzword—AI. I think we made it 10 minutes without saying it. That might be a first. But tell me more about how the company uses AI, whether internally or customer-facing.
Ferguson: A lot of our technology platforms, even before AI, were using machine learning to help us make faster, smarter decisions—whether that's forecasting and replenishment, buying, pricing decisions or operating and labor models. Now that AI is part of our lives, it really opens up Pandora’s box. We’re leveraging the speed and capability—whether it's hiring, training or onboarding. Everything’s lightning-fast and accessible, no matter how long you’ve been with the company or in a store. AI helps us train people more effectively and respond to questions quickly. On the business side, when you think of really complex problems that would take a whole room of people thinking all day about it, we can now iterate through those problems quickly—pricing, promotion, marketing. I have a tremendous marketing and graphic design team, but my AI assistant is with me all day, every day. If I want to see 10 different color schemes in 30 seconds for a sign or marketing campaign, or I want to animate something, I can do it instantly and not burden the team by asking for 10 more options. Whether it’s an in-store campaign, writing a letter, translating something—we’ve got stores in 30 states and 16,000 team members who speak all sorts of different languages—we can translate instantaneously. It’s a great assistant. We rely on AI to help inform our decisions, not make them for us. It’s good to have at your fingertips, whether you’re on the front line, in the corporate environment or working on a new revenue stream or idea. It’s really helpful. I think it’s complementary to the business. In our world, there’s analytics and creativity. The confluence of those is really important. When something’s time-sensitive or you have too many scenarios to run, it’s great to have this technology.
Rachel: Yeah, using it to free up more time for the creative things you want to do. Talk a little bit about foodservice. Cumberland opened a Wonder food chain location a few months ago. Can you tell me more?
Ferguson: Prepared foods and foodservice are among the largest opportunities we have as a company. Within the convenience channel, companies with great food offerings are growing much faster than those underdeveloped in that space. We’ve got a variety of great partnerships, including Wonder. What they’ve done in a short time—using a ghost kitchen concept and incorporating world-famous chefs, modern menus and delivery partners—has allowed us to introduce food that would’ve taken us an enormous amount of time to develop ourselves. Wonder has nine-plus different concepts. All of them are turnkey, easy from an operations standpoint, and the quality is unbelievable. The best burger or cheesesteak you’ve ever had—and you’re thinking, how did I get this at a convenience store? It’s because the recipes are from world-famous chefs. It’s designed to be successful not just in fast food, but in a convenience format. It’s easy for our operators to execute, and food delivery is essential to the Wonder concept. We’ve been thrilled with the partnership. We have plans to expand and leverage their existing menus. Their team in New Jersey is working on new concepts every day that we get to try out. It’s also a differentiator—unexpected in some of our markets to have that level of food quality in a convenience environment. And the pricing is equivalent to some of the best casual and specialty dining restaurants.
Rachel: My last question is about the value meal. I’ve seen a lot of those lately. What’s the strategy behind that?
Ferguson: We started talking about the growing needs of our guests early last year. The economy is changing, inflation is high, and prices are rising. People are looking for great quality at a fair price. Right behind me is our EG America Culinary Center. It makes some of the best sandwiches and pizzas—some of the best money can buy. We said, let’s leverage the strength of our culinary center. We can deliver a superior product at a sharp cost and be meaningful to our guests. Whether it’s at Turkey Hill, Loaf ‘N Jug, Tom Thumb, Sprint or Cumberland Farms, people deserve a great breakfast sandwich and a fantastic cup of coffee for $3. Right now, we’ve got a $3 deal for breakfast sandwiches and coffee. You can add a hash brown and make it a $4 deal—a tremendous amount of food and beverage for the price, with an unbelievable level of quality. Then we move into $5 and $6 deals. We want to offer great value and high quality at all price points. With all the national marketing campaigns focused on value menus, we were proud to be one of the first to roll out a sharp deal. We just wanted to surprise people: the best breakfast sandwich in convenience, now with an extra-large cup of coffee for $3. And we didn’t engineer it down—we took our best-selling products and said, let’s go to market with a tremendous $3 and $4 offering.
Rachel: Great. Was there anything else you wanted to add?
Ferguson: Just thank you for the time. It’s exciting to be in the convenience space. EG America is doing incredible work across so many parts of the business. Our primary focus is just welcoming people into our stores, giving them amazing food and beverages, great loyalty, thanking them for their business, and just being more important in their lives. We know times are challenging. We’re in 1,600 neighborhoods across America, and we’re proud to serve those communities. We look forward to exceeding everyone’s expectations the next time they visit a Cumberland, Tom Thumb, Turkey Hill, Loaf ‘N Jug—you name it.
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