Dive Brief:
- Wawa plans to open 60 stores in Ohio and 40 stores in Kentucky over the next eight to 10 years, according to company announcements issued this week.
- The convenience retailer plans to begin to break ground on the first of these stores in mid-2024, with up to 10 locations in each state opening in 2025.
- The news comes amid a massive expansion drive for Wawa, which currently operates more than 1,000 stores in six states and Washington, D.C. The company aims to grow to more than 1,800 stores by 2030.
Dive Insight:
A big part of Wawa’s plan to reach nearly 2,000 stores in the coming years includes pushing into several new states. That expansion map includes North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana and Tennessee in addition to Ohio and Kentucky.
In Kentucky, Wawa plans to open up to 10 stores in 2025 and about five stores every year after that point. The company already has 15 sites under contract in Boone, Bullitt, Fayette, Hardin, Jefferson, Jessamine, Oldham, Scott, Shelby and Warren counties, which are at various stages of the permitting and approval process.
In Ohio, meanwhile, Wawa plans to open up to 10 stores in 2025 and an additional 10 in 2026, with five stores a year opening after that. Seventeen sites are already under contract and working their way through the approval process in Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Greene, Hamilton, Miami, Montgomery and Warren counties. These counties are concentrated in the southwest corner of the state, around Cincinnati and Dayton and near the borders with Kentucky and Indiana.
Wawa expects to invest about $7 million and employ about 140 contractors and local partners per site for each of the 100 stores set to open in Kentucky and Ohio. Once open, each will employ around 35 associates.
The announcements came as part of a three-day publicity tour Wawa is making through Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. The final leg of this tour will happen on Thursday in Indiana, according to a report from the Indianapolis Recorder.
Before this tour, details of the Pennsylvania-based retailer’s planned expansion had come from local government and planning board meetings. The first Kentucky location has already been approved by the Elizabethtown Planning commission.
In Ohio, sites have already been approved in Liberty Township and Huber Heights, while the company has withdrawn plans for a site in Englewood, according to the Dayton Daily News.
And in Indiana, the company has already gotten the green light to build in Noblesville. A representative from Wawa said in February that the retailer plans to open about 30 stores in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee in 2025.
