| Type | Private, owned by Wild Goose Holding Co. |
|---|---|
| Industry | Convenience store Gas station |
| Founded | 1964 |
| Founder(s) | Grahame Wood |
| Headquarters | Chester Heights, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Number of locations | 590+[1] |
| Key people | Howard Stoeckel, CEO |
| Products | Coffee, sandwiches, prepared foods, gasoline, beverages, dairy products |
| Revenue | US$ 4.5 billion (2007) |
| Employees | 16,000 |
| Website | Wawa.com |
Wawa Inc. is a chain of convenience store/gas stations located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It operates in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Florida. The company's corporate headquarters is located in the Wawa area and in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania,[2][3] near Middletown Township in Delaware County.[4] As of 2002 and as of 2008, Wawa is the largest convenience store chain in Greater Philadelphia, and it is also the third largest retailer of food in Greater Philadelphia, after ACME Markets and ShopRite.[5][6] As of 2008, within New Jersey, Wawa stores are concentrated in South Jersey.[7]
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In the early 19th century Richard D. Wood ran a store in Greenwich, New Jersey selling items grown on his farm. It was 1803 when David Wood became a part owner of a furnace that sold stove plates through the firm of Smith and Wood. About a century later George Wood moved to Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It was here that he started to operate the Wawa Dairy Farm. During the 1920s, when the demand for dairy products grew rapidly, so did the company. Wawa Dairy Farms later used the slogan "Buy Health by the Bottle" and with that the farm was reaching customers in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. However, in the 1960s demand for home delivery of milk products declined, leading to the development of the Wawa Food Market.
On April 16, 1964, Wawa Food Markets opened their first store under the guidance of Grahame Wood,[8] in Folsom, Ridley Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.[6] This location is still open, and many Wood family members are still active within the company as of July 2009. Although Wawa is a family-run business, the employees of Wawa also hold a relatively large percentage of stock. Most Wawas are open 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The chain's name comes from the site of the company's first milk plant and corporate headquarters in the Wawa, Pennsylvania area. The name of the town Wawa is in turn derived from the Ojibwe word for the Canada Goose (taken from "The Song of Hiawatha").[9] An image of a goose in flight serves as the Wawa corporate logo.[10]
Wawa sells over 195 million cups of coffee a year.[11] Wawa was among the first convenience stores to implement self-serve computer touch-screen menus for food orders, in an attempt to improve accuracy. It can potentially be used as gateways to up-selling, as well.
The current president and CEO of Wawa is Howard Stoeckel.[12] Eleuthère (Thère) du Pont has served as both the CFO and president, but is no longer associated with the company. Richard D. (Dick) Wood, Jr. is chairman of the board of directors.
In 2006, Wawa ranked 63rd on the Forbes Magazine list of the largest private companies[13] but dropped to 64th on the 2007 list.[14] As of July 2009, Wawa employs 16,000 in 570 stores (210 offering gasoline) and had total revenues of $4.67 billion in 2007.[15] In recent years, many Wawa Markets have been expanded to "Super Wawas," with 12-20 gasoline pumps, and all new Wawas constructed are of the "Super Wawa" variety (though not all feature gas stations). Wawa, for the most part, covers the parts of Pennsylvania not already covered by fast-growing in-state rivals Sheetz and Turkey Hill Mini Marts.
In the late 1980s and through the 1990s, Wawa engaged in a scholarship sponsorship program that involved Irish students (mainly from UCC in Cork, Ireland) running a considerable number of stores on the Pennsylvania Main Line. This was a successful program that allowed the students to study for their MBAs from Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia.[16]
In 1994 Wawa opened a store in Center City, Philadelphia which sells fast food only; no groceries are sold.[17]
In 2005, Wawa partnered with JPMorgan Chase to offer a Visa credit card branded with the Wawa name. It ceased issuing new cards in December 2007, and as of November 2010 the program has been canceled.[18]
In 2006 the "I Love Wawa" MySpace page had over 5,000 members. The "We Love Wawa" page on Livejournal had about 950 members.[19]
In the spring of 2007, Wawa began offering its own line of soda in its stores.
In the summer of 2008, Wawa introduced a special on their hoagie line called "Hoagiefest", which offered a price reduction on four selected varieties of their "Shorti" size hoagies, each variety on sale for a two-week period in an eight-week rotation. The Hoagiefest ad campaign relied on a style very reminiscent of The Beatles, using 1960s psychedelic imagery and songs. "Hoagiefest" has been revived in the summers of 2009, 2010, and 2011, and was expanded in 2010 by both length of time and that two styles of hoagies are available at any particular time.[20] The John Lennon-esque character's name is Kotter Doppelgänger.
On February 12, 2010, KYW-TV announced on their 4:00 pm broadcast that Wawa would become the primary sponsor of the Welcome America series of Independence Day celebrations in Philadelphia, starting on July 4, 2010. The previous sponsor was Sunoco.
On June 30, 2010, 20 Wawa locations in Pennsylvania started selling Pennsylvania Lottery tickets from automated kiosks as a trial to explore whether to expand the service to all Pennsylvania stores. On December 6, 2010, it was announced that all 210 Pennsylvania Wawa locations would sell lottery tickets from kiosks by Spring 2011.[21]
On October 21, 2010, Wawa began testing the sale of diesel fuel at 12 of its New Jersey locations because of the increase in use among cars. If the test runs well, all locations with fuel may have diesel fuel within two years.[22]
The corporate headquarters, known as Red Roof, is on Baltimore Pike in Chester Heights. The nearby dairy farm, across from the former Franklin Mint is in Middletown.
Wawa Dairy is a dairy processor that produces its own line of milk, ice cream, iced teas, juices, and fruit drinks. George Wood started Wawa Dairy Farms in 1902 with a small herd of cows and a processing and bottling plant in Wawa, Pennsylvania. This early dairy operation was famous for its "Doctor Approved" pasteurized milk. In the early 20th century, Wawa's milkmen were so well trusted by their clients that many of them were given the keys to the households that they delivered to, so that they could simply let themselves in and place the milk in the ice box. In the summer of 2002, Wawa Dairy celebrated its 100th anniversary by having a week-long "thirst aid tour" where it delivered over 100,000 cold beverages to those who needed them the most. Wawa partnered with local food banks in an attempt to raise awareness of the ongoing need for support.
Wawa offers products found at most convenience chain marts such as chips, drinks and soda. Wawa also sells their own branded water, iced tea, soda, orange juice, and milk. Key products include its variety of coffee and cappuccino flavors and sizes, and its made-to-order hoagies. Wawa also offers a brand of hot breakfast products, most famous of which is the "Sizzli", and also a full deli with touch-screen ordering of sandwiches, hot sides, and deli meats. The "Super Wawa" sites, in addition to being larger stores, also provide gasoline.[23] Wawa also advertises its state minimum-priced cigarettes. Wawa sells beer in Maryland and Virginia.
As of 1996, Wawa also sells Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas and Taco Bell burritos.[17]
Unlike many other convenience stores, most Wawas do not sell lottery tickets, although 20 stores in Pennsylvania started selling tickets on June 30, 2010 (see above). About 90% of all of Wawa's products are delivered by the McLane Distribution Center (or NJDC) in Carney's Point, NJ.
As of April 2010, Wawa has 570 locations across Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.[24]
Wawa's territory once stretched into North Jersey, New York and Connecticut, but in the late 1990s, the decision was made to abandon the New York metropolitan area and New England, as it was too competitive. The abandoned stores were re-branded when they were sold to Krauszer's (in Connecticut) and a variety of other convenience retailers, but most are still recognizable as they retain their distinctive "Wawa" design. The company continued to operate numerous stores in Central and South Jersey, and re-entered North Jersey in 2010, when Wawa opened a new store in Parsippany.[25]
In 2010, Wawa announced it would be expanding into Central Florida. The company plans to open 15 stores in the Orlando and Tampa Bay areas over the period of two years.[26]
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