Wawa CEO Chris Gheysens offered some interesting insight about his company when he recently spoke with the Philadelphia Inquirer about Wawa’s rapid growth, which expands at a rate of one store per week, his thoughts on the minimum wage, and his rivalry with Sheetz.

The issue of raising the minimum wage has been gaining momentum throughout the country. Gheysens believes that Wawa is well equipped to handle the potential increase.

“Our minimum is now $10 an hour,” he said. “I’m a little bit on the different side from most in the retail industry. When you look at our business model, I think we can absorb that type of cost much better than most of our competitors.

“When you think of your traditional convenience stores, [with their] mix of profit – they don’t have the fresh food. They are living off cigarettes, snacks, packaged goods, and gas – all generally dwindling categories with very low margins. So they don’t have the financial bandwidth.”

Sheetz, the popular family-owned Western Pennsylvania convenience chain, is now heading east. Although Sheetz will directly compete with Wawa in some territories, Gheysens had praise for the company.

“[CEO] Joe Sheetz spends time in Wawa territory down in Stone Harbor, so he’s in our stores a lot,” said Gheysens. “Sheetz and Wawa, underneath the veneer of what the stores look like, are very similar – food service, lots of innovation around fresh food. Unique at what we do.

“We both focus on customers, so it’s just the veneer of the brand. We come off a little bit more conservative, and they would come off a little bit more flashy.”

Click here to read more of what Wawa CEO Chris Gheysens had to say in the Philadelphia Inquirer.