Convenience store chain Wawa plans to boost its store count in six new states and potentially across the entire U.S.
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The Delaware County-based chain that is a Philadelphia favorite will expand to North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama this year and open stores in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky by 2025, according to announcements on the company’s website. Meanwhile, a report from Bloomberg indicates that employees have been briefed on potential larger plans to take the chain national.
A company spokesperson directed Bisnow to its website, which details a plan to open about 240 new locations altogether in Southern and Midwestern states like Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina and Ohio over the next decade or so.
The company hasn't announced further expansion, and it declined to respond to employee comments that its long-term plans include stores in every state in the nation. CEO Chris Gheysens has previously said Wawa hopes to add up to 100 stores each year through 2030 as part of “the most aggressive growth” in company history.
The home of hot hoagies, pizza, coffee and more has already expanded in recent years, including adding drive-thru formats in some locations. There are Wawa stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and Washington, D.C., with nearly 1,000 locations in total, according to the company’s most recent expansion announcement.
The chain has made recent moves into central Pennsylvania, where it plans to take on rival Sheetz with as many as 40 new stores.
Wawa isn't the only convenience store chain thinking bigger. Several large chains have expanded in recent years, entering new markets and acquiring competitor locations. Iowa-based Casey’s General Stores last year announced the addition of 350 new locations by 2026 and has acquired all or part of three companies in recent years, Bisnow reported.
Texas-based Buc-ee's is also widening its horizons. Buc-cee's opened its first location outside the Lone Star State in Alabama in 2019. It has since opened locations in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina and Tennessee, with plans to open in Arizona, Colorado and six other states, according to C-Store Dive.
Like Buc-ee's, Wawa enjoys a cultlike following of its brand, especially in Northern states. First founded as a milk processing and delivery company, Grahame Wood opened Wawa’s first food market in 1964.
The Wood family’s 53% stake in the private company added up to a net worth of around $6B, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
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