Wawa CEO Chris Gheysens has been making the rounds lately, talking about Wawa’s role with its customers and staff as it continues to bring its Delaware County store brand to new places around the country, writes Joseph N. DiStefano for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Gheysens gave the keynote talk March 11 at the yearly IAmPhenom conference at the Convention Center in Philadelphia, and on March 14 talked with Chester County business leaders.
Most Wawa customers spend three to five minutes in the store, he said.
“We strive to make it the best three to five minutes of someone’s day,” Gheysens.said.
Fueling his Wawa expansion, he said, is the luxury of knowing they can afford to lose money in the short-term, since Wawa is a private company.
“We can go into new markets and lose money for a number of years,” he told the crowd. “Goldman Sachs did an analysis. They looked into our financials and said, ‘If you were public, you couldn’t lose that much money.’ I walked away and thought, ‘That’s a competitive advantage.’”
A benefit of Wawa–stock for employee retirement plans–also helps with recruitment and retention of staff.
Read more of Gheysen’s comments and his recommended Wawa food in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
