DEERFIELD, Ill. — Mondelez International has selected Dirk Van de Put to lead the company after CEO Irene Rosenfeld announced she will step down in November 2017. Van de Put is president and CEO of McCain Foods, Florenceville, Canada.

Rosenfeld will step down in November from the position she’s held since 2006, when the company was still part of Kraft. In 2012, Kraft Foods Inc. became Mondelez International Inc., Deerfield, Ill., after spinning off its North American grocery business.

Van de Put will also join the company’s board of directors. Rosenfeld will continue as chairman of the board until March 31, 2018, at which point she will retire, and Van de Put will assume the role of chairman and CEO.

“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as chairman and CEO of this great company,” Rosenfeld said at the company’s most recent earnings call. “I truly enjoyed working alongside my colleagues around the world to achieve our bold ambitions and create value for our shareholders.”

During her tenure as chairman and CEO, Rosenfeld helped place the company as one of the leading manufacturers of snacks products in the world, with 85% of its net revenue coming from snacks. During that time, more than 70% of the company’s revenue came from what she calls “power brands,” including c-store staples such as Oreo, Belvita biscuits, Cadbury Dairy Milk and Milka chocolate and Trident gum. She helped the company create value for its shareholders, to the tune of $120 billion through share price appreciation and dividends, and total shareholder returns.

“I am very proud of what our 90,000 colleagues at Mondelez International have accomplished,” Rosenfeld said. “Throughout my tenure as CEO, the world and our industry have undergone a period of unprecedented change. During that time, we anticipated emerging challenges, adapted accordingly and created significant value for our shareholders. The outlook is bright for this great company—one of the few that has consistently delivered on both the top and bottom lines while making critical investments for future growth.”

As the incoming CEO, Van de Put brings nearly 30 years of experience in the food and consumer-packaged-goods industry to this new leadership role. He comes to the company from McCain Foods. During his six-year tenure as CEO there, he grew net sales by more than 50%, generating more than 75% of that growth organically, with EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) growing double digits each of the past six years. 

Prior to joining McCain, Van de Put held executive positions with Novartis, Groupe Danone, The Coca-Cola Co. and Mars Inc. He graduated with a doctorate in veterinary medicine from the University of Gent in Belgium and a post-graduate in marketing and management from the University of Antwerp. Van de Put is fluent in five languages, including English, Dutch, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

“The board and I are confident that Dirk Van de Put is the right leader to take us forward. He is a seasoned global CEO, having lived and worked on three different continents, with deep experience and expertise in all critical business and commercial operations in both emerging and developed markets,” Rosenfeld said. “Throughout his career, Dirk has had a proven track record of driving top-line and category growth, while at the same time improving cost structures and profitability. And he has achieved these results with a values-based leadership style and steadfast focus on people.”

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Core-Mark Holding Co., a marketer of fresh and broadline supply solutions to the convenience-retail industry, has rolled out Arcadia Bay Select Coffees. The new premium product offers a fully branded, turnkey line of modern brewing and dispensing options, installation and service for convenience operators looking to expand their profit base, according to the company.

Core-Mark partnered with Boyd Coffee Co., a Portland, Ore.-based coffee roaster, to develop a premium line of coffee exclusively available to Core-Mark customers. Arcadia Bay Select Coffees includes 10 varieties of both single-origin and blended 100% Arabica bean coffees. The beans are sourced from eight coffee-growing regions from around the world, such as Kona, Brazil, Ethiopia and Guatemala.

The Arcadia Bay Select program will provide convenience-store retailers with marketing support, signage, menu boards, prefab kiosks, branded cups, varying roast levels, single-origin coffees, improved taste and quality profiles, as well as Rainforest Alliance and certified organic coffees.

“This exciting new program was inspired by coffee consumers who are seeking a quality coffee experience at convenience-store prices,” said Jon Bratta, vice president of marketing for Core-Mark. “It was designed from the ground up to create a coffee destination within the store, allowing our customers to provide a better cup of coffee for their everyday coffee consumers, as well as attracting the discriminating coffee drinker who might typically drive down the street to a coffeehouse to get their morning pick-me-up.”

The variety of the coffee blends is one of the new program’s core drivers and strengths, according to Core-Mark. “With the number of selections we are offering, it will give our customers the ability to tailor the mix to their customer base, as well as bring in other varieties as limited-time offers and create some excitement around their coffee offer,” said Bratta.

South San Francisco, Calif.-based Core-Mark services traditional convenience retailers, grocers, drug, liquor and specialty stores, and other stores that carry convenience products, at approximately 47,000 customer locations in the United States and Canada through 32 distribution centers.

MIDDLETON, Wis. — Kwik Trip Inc.’s pending acquisition of the PDQ Food Stores chain of 34 convenience stores in southeastern Wisconsin represents the joining of two well-respected c-store enterprises.

• Kwik Trip, La Crosse, Wis., is No. 15 in CSP’s Top 202 c-store ranking for 2017; PDQ, Middleton, Wis., is No. 174.

Dick Meyer was executive vice president and CFO of PDQ Food Stores Inc. and Pick Kwik Food Stores for eight years. CSP asked the 40-year industry veteran to share some of his reflections on the transaction.

“This deal fits like a glove,” said Meyer. “I am thrilled with this great marriage of quality companies and people cultures. It made sense for these two low-profile Midwestern chains to combine their strategic marketing prowess and reputations. It’s a win-win for this combined synergy.”

Here are a few of Meyer’s observations on the Kwik Trip-PDQ deal:

• One of the best things Kwik Trip is getting is some of the investments PDQ made in the prime areas of Milwaukee that Kwik Trip couldn’t enter because PDQ was too dominant.
• Kwik Trip and PDQ both built solid stores on spacious sites that are operated by passionate store management and supported by meaningful market-basket-type technological tools.
• Both companies have lower-than-average turnover in operations, enviable compensation packages and bonus arrangements keyed to their employer’s profits performance. And PDQ has its share of pride as an employee-owned company.
• I’ve always looked for what I call “common denominators” of successful companies—best practices—such as when you see Kwik Trip repeatedly winning mystery shop of the year.
• And Kwik Trip has an enviable, efficient system of distributing to their stores every day.

Meyer attributed much of his own success to the lessons he learned from PDQ’s founder, Sam Jacobsen. He said he was “confident Sam would be happy to realize that his ‘survivor’ students realize the value of his wisdom.”

Jacobsen opened his first store, under the Tri Dairy name, in 1948 in Middleton, Wis. He opened the first c-store to fly the PDQ banner in 1962. In 1977, through multiple acquisitions and new builds, Jacobsen had grown PDQ (and then Pick Kwik) to a company of about 150 c-stores operating primarily in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado and Florida.

Here is a sampling of the lessons Meyer said he learned from Jacobsen, or his “favorite five”:

1. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Sam revered his confidential Figures Exchange group, which may have been the first retail share group in the c-store industry. The top executives of this group of noncompetitive chains would get together about twice a year to analyze per-store metrics, tour area c-stores and debate best practices for their stores and organizations.
2. Negotiation tactics. Do your homework so you achieve a fair and informed deal and “leave something (economic or otherwise) on the table” that is evident to the other party. Jacobsen believed that such goodwill would be respected by honorable parties.
3. Sleep on big decisions and “trust the Constitution.” When PDQ hit a brick wall on a business or related issue, Jacobsen “encouraged us to sleep on the matter or to read the Constitution, which he proudly had in bronze on his office wall.” He felt that after doing so, “common sense” would help trigger the best solution.
4. There is no such thing as a “free” lunch. That needs no explanation, especially to c-store foodservice operators.
5. Have fun! Jacobsen loved a good laugh. “There were many times that we’d say something goofy during a weekly meeting or when visiting competitive stores. Instead of questioning the person’s sanity, he’d shrug off the incident with a big laugh followed by his query: How many stores do we operate?”

More observations from Meyer:

As I learned in my business experiences, it’s one thing to create admirable policies. It’s another to translate these principles into practice. The following were a few action items in response to Jacobsen’s “common-sense” objectives:

• Give back to the industry. Sam was one of a dozen or so co-founders of NACS and one of its early presidents.
• By-store P&Ls. I suspect, somewhat pushed by Sam’s original Figures Exchange share group, as well as his own hunger for store managers’ awareness of business trends, PDQ was one of the earliest chains with bottom-line accountability of controllable income from store managers.
• Metrics benchmarking. Before personal computers, and when available reports were limited in substance compared to today’s more dynamic analytics, PDQ searched for credible companies’ per-store trends to aggressively crystallize opportunities where we missed exceeding the “average” or known top 25% performers’ results.
• Close “dawg” operations. The hardest lesson to address, but one that had the most significant effect on PDQ’s financial strength, was when we ranked the chain’s stores by volume, profitability and ROI, then closed or sold underperforming stores.

“While I conclude these thoughts about my first mentor in this wonderful industry, I admit that the Kwik Trip acquisition of PDQ triggered a lot of special memories.” Meyer told CSP Daily News. “It’s comforting to move behind the curtain and be thankful for so many mentors that shared their wisdom and support to me over four decades. Thanks to Fred, Bill, Drayton, Jack, Rex, Greg, Paul, Bryan, Lyle, David and so many more industry founders that Sam introduced me to, who allowed me to learn from their experiences and trust in this kid from Jersey.”

A “Big 8” CPA (KPMG Peat Marwick) by background, Dick Meyer has 40 years in the c-store industry, including CFO and executive vice president of PDQ and sister company Pick Kwik Food Stores; president of ProfiMax; co-founder and partner of C-Store Xchange (CSX); and president and owner of Meyer & Associates, which provided executive-level strategic services for suppliers, retailers and investment managers to the industry. He also was a member and chairman of the NACS Suppliers Board. Contact Dick at dickmeyer@me.com.

Less complexity, lower prices, better choices and greater confidence: That’s the pitch of German discount grocer Lidl to consumers as it enters the U.S. market.

“Lidl is grocery shopping refreshed, retooled and rethought to make life better,” said Brendan Proctor, president and CEO of Lidl U.S., in a press release.

Lidl, which operates about 10,000 stores in 27 European countries, opened its first U.S. locations June 15 in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Its U.S. headquarters are in Arlington, Va., and the grocer plans to open 20 stores this summer and 100 stores by summer 2018.

At 20,000 square feet, the Lidl stores will feature what the company calls “a manageable, easy-to-shop” six-aisle layout. They will offer fresh baked goods in a bakery at each store’s entrance; wine; sustainable options, such as fresh and frozen seafood that will be certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council, Best Aquaculture Practices or the Aquaculture Stewardship Council; organic and gluten-free options, including fruit, vegetables and meat; and private-label products that contain no synthetic colors, trans fats or added MSG.

“They’re going for that Aldi customer and that Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market store customer,” says Jim Fisher, CEO of IMST Corp., Houston. He describes the number of new sites as “a very grandiose plan.”

“To say from Day One that they are going to find 100 pieces of real estate that are applicable for these stores, go through the permitting process, the variance process, all the other zoning issues … that is a big, big nut to crack in the next 12-plus months,” he says.

And it just so happens that many of the U.S. Lidl locations will be positioned near its competition —and for good reason.

Site Insights

The site location strategy for a “discounter” such as Lidl “can appear illogical at times, as they generally like to site themselves nearer a larger competitor store,” according to a report from market intelligence firm Grocery Insight UK. “It’s all about secondary footfall.”

The thought is that as consumers visit the larger grocer, they will drive past Lidl and realize it is a place where they can make similar purchases and possibly for a better price, said the report’s author, Steve Dresser, director of Grocery Insight UK, Harrogate, England.

“If the customer is on a budget, they may purchase branded items and other items at the larger supermarket before visiting the discounter for the secondary shop of staple items where price is low and quality is more than acceptable,” Dresser said.

As Lidl works to build a following with U.S. consumers who likely haven’t heard of the chain, this strategy could work to Lidl’s advantage. “The secondary mission quickly becomes a primary mission, with the customer only visiting the larger store for the items that a discounter doesn’t stock, or where personal tastes may overcome a discounter equivalent,” Dresser said.

About 90% of the groceries available at Lidl will be exclusive brands, a model similar to that of Trader Joe’s or Aldi. This “drives loyalty toward the discounter,” Dresser said. “The customer must visit the discounter, as that product isn’t stocked elsewhere.”

That said, Lidl could face headwinds on pricing, especially as it competes with one of the U.S. retail industry’s most formidable discount giants.

“A major difference between the U.K. and U.S. markets is that EDLP (everyday low pricing) is already used here by Wal-Mart,” Dresser said. “So Lidl with their slightly lower prices … doesn’t have a hugely lower price basket to use as bait.”

Lidl said shoppers can expect to get “top-quality goods and groceries at up to 50% less than other supermarkets in the United States … based upon a price comparison of comparable products sold at leading national retail grocery stores.”

One way Lidl keeps costs low is through its “bring your own bag” policy, which “allows us to omit the cost of bags into our prices,” the company said on its website. Another way is by locally sourcing meat, fruit and vegetables, and baking its breads in-store.

The Aldi Factor

Perhaps a bigger threat than Wal-Mart is Aldi, a grocer that also has roots in Germany, is privately owned and has stores similar in size (15,000 to 20,000 square feet) and product offering. Aldi has been in the United States since 1976 and has more than 1,600 stores in 35 states.

But Mike Paglia, director of retail insights for Kantar Retail Americas, Boston, says the similarities are “largely superficial.”

“Aldi, generally speaking, doesn’t deviate a whole lot from its core model. Rather, it opens stores where it believes it will be successful,” he says. “Lidl, on the other hand, is highly adaptive. It will modify its assortment, promotions and marketing to fi t local preferences across multiple markets.”

Lidl has two main promotions: “Fresh 5” specials, a “deeply discounted” selection of three fruits and vegetables and two meats that changes on Mondays and Thursdays; and themed weeks, such as Italian, Greek or French Week, that begin on Thursdays.

Lidl is far louder than Aldi when communicating lower prices to its customer, Dresser said. Store aisles have many signs highlighting two-for deals and other price-based promotions.

These low-price initiatives could be the key to Lidl’s success in the United States, which Paglia says is saturated with “large underperforming, undifferentiated stores.”

“Shoppers aren’t terribly loyal to them,” he says. “The U.S. shopper base has increasingly signaled a growing appeal for private-label, nuanced value (i.e., offering low prices and higher quality), as well as small stores that facilitate small, frequent fill-in trips.”

Lidl, on the other hand, “is known for a pace of innovation and evolution that few can match,” says Paglia.

But Fisher of IMST isn’t concerned about a threat to the convenience industry: “It’s not another alternative to convenience stores. Period. It’s a grocery alternative.”

IRVING, Texas — More than 8,000 ATMs in U.S. 7-Eleven stores will offer surcharge-free access to customers. The upgrades are courtesy of a multiyear deal between MoneyPass and FCTI Inc., owned by Seven & I Holdings Co., 7-Eleven Inc.’s parent company.

Beginning in August 2017, MoneyPass access will be rolled out across ATMs in 7-Eleven stores, the companies announced. The ATM rollout is expected to continue through early 2018. At the completion of the rollout, Minneapolis-based MoneyPass will have an estimated 33,000 surcharge-free ATMs in the United States.

“The addition of the 7-Eleven stores to the MoneyPass Network brings value to both organizations,” said Douglas Miraglia, president of the MoneyPass Network. “MoneyPass card issuers can promote the expansion of convenient surcharge-free ATM access to their cardholders. And 7-Eleven looks to increase foot traffic to their location from the 87 million cards of the MoneyPass Network.”

“Partnering with MoneyPass aligns with our focus of delivering ATM programs that provide incremental value and increase foot traffic to our customers’ locations,” said Jeffrey Wernecke, co-CEO of FCTI. “We are pleased to begin offering MoneyPass surcharge-free ATM access on FCTI’s ATMs at 7-Eleven.”

Minneapolis-based MoneyPass is a network of Elan Financial Services, a provider of comprehensive ATM and debit-card processing solutions for financial institutions, independent sales organizations and retailers. MoneyPass provides surcharge-free access at 25,000 ATMs across the United States. With more than 1,700 participating organizations and 87 million active cards, the MoneyPass Network places an emphasis on cost-efficient membership options, flexible terms and accessible locations.

Los Angeles-based FCTI is a leading nationwide ATM network and service provider founded in 1993. With a focus on customer service, FCTI aims to help companies drive additional revenue without upfront investment in hardware, ensuring a full-service approach that reduces the cost and hassle associated with maintenance, cash management and ATM compliance. Seven & I Holdings Co. is the parent organization of FCTI. 7-Eleven Inc. is based in Irving, Texas.

CHICAGO — EMVCo, a global technical body that manages Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) specifications, has released two QR-code payment specifications that should help standardize code payment methods.

According to EMVCo, the documents define QR-code payments in a manner that simplifies the development and potentially broadens the acceptance of QR-code payment solutions globally.

“With the increasing deployment of QR-code payment methods, it is important that the payments ecosystem provides a consistent experience for merchants and consumers,” said Cheryl Mish, chair, EMVCo board of managers. “Given the early stage of deployment of this emerging payment technology and growing adoption, now is the time to ensure the technology’s potential is not constrained in the future due to interoperability issues with the established payment infrastructure.”

QR, or quick response, codes are two-dimensional machine-readable barcodes that are increasingly used to facilitate mobile payments at the point-of-sale. The EMV QR Code Specification for Payment Systems supports both consumer-presented and merchant-presented code payment use cases. Consumer-presented refers to the merchant scanning the code while merchant-presented refers to the customer scanning the code with their mobile device.

San Francisco-based Visa has announced support for the specifications. EMVCo said the new specifications will enable merchants to accept QR-code payment solutions from various providers in a standardized manner. Consumers will also benefit from a more uniform experience.

The EMV QR Code Specification for Payment Systems can coexist with existing proprietary QR-code solutions. All EMV specifications are available on a royalty-free basis on the EMVCo website.

EMVCo is also developing a self-testing framework for the merchant-presented and consumer-presented specifications that allows point of interaction (POI) implementers to evaluate whether their QR codes are generated or interpreted in compliance with the EMV QR Code Specifications. EMVCo expects this to be available in early 2018.

EMVCo is the global technical body that facilitates the worldwide interoperability and acceptance of secure payment transactions by managing and evolving the EMV specifications and related testing processes. EMVCo is collectively owned by American Express, Discover, JCB, MasterCard, UnionPay and Visa, and focuses on the technical advancement of the EMV Specifications. All collective owners actively participate across all work groups within EMVCo.

LONG BEACH, Calif. — A Mobil-branded convenience store and the California State Lottery Commission face a curious lawsuit from a lottery winner who was denied his payoff.

Ward Thomas sent his 16-year-old son Benjamin to the Long Beach Mobil in October 2016 to trade in 12 winning “Deluxe 7s” California State Lottery Scratchers worth $330. The clerk gave the teenager five $20 scratch-off tickets and the remaining $230 in cash.

Thomas and his son played the tickets and with a “100X the Money” ticket found a $5 million winning ticket. Thomas, not his son, reportedly validated the winning ticket at a 7-Eleven that night and did so again the next day at the state’s Lottery District Office in Santa Ana, Calif.

Soon after, the commission informed Thomas that he was the winner of the $5 million prize. But weeks later, on Dec 5., the commission denied Thomas’ claim, saying the ticket was bought by the ineligible 16-year-old son and was therefore invalid. Only those age 18 and over can legally play the lottery in California.

“We’ve been honest with the lottery about how things transpired,” Thomas said in a press release from his legal team. “The California Lottery led us to believe that we had won for several weeks by congratulating us by phone several times. Then we received a brief note almost two months later denying our claim, and they refused to speak to me by phone after that. It’s not fair that the lottery exchanged our tickets, but refuses to honor them when we won a larger sum of money.”

CSP POLL: Should the Calif. Lottery Commission pay Ward Thomas his $5 million winnings? Related story: https://t.co/Fr4cSlW3XO #cspdn

— CSP Magazine (@CSPmagazine) August 3, 2017

Thomas filed a lawsuit through Greene Broillet and Wheeler LLP, a personal-injury law firm based in Santa Monica, Calif. The lawsuit claims that there is no signage in the Mobil c-store to inform customers that they must be 18 years or older to purchase California State Lottery Scratchers tickets. Thomas has also said that the store did not verify his son’s age before allowing him to obtain the tickets.

The lawsuit also claims that Thomas has suffered and will continue to suffer both financially and emotionally. The would-be lottery winner’s suffering totals about $50,000 in damages.

Los Angeles TV station KCAL 9’s legal analyst Steve Meister is not confident that the lawsuit will be successful. “I think that the family has a losing case,” said Meister. “Look, the kid was ineligible to purchase it. It’s not the state’s responsibility to now say, ‘Okay, well, because someone let you play, here’s your million dollars.’ ”

The plaintiff’s attorney disagrees. “We have received calls from prior winners with similar stories who were paid under similar circumstances,” said plaintiff attorney Mark Quigley in the law firm’s press release. “We want the Lottery to reconsider its decision and pay the winning ticket to Mr. Thomas, because it’s the right and fair thing to do.”

What do you think? Should the state lottery commission honor the ticket or did father and son forfeit their chance at big money by letting a 16-year-old make the purchase? Click here to share your opinion in a CSP Daily News Twitter poll.

MANCHESTER, England — In a deal that is expected to help the company grow faster, convenience-petroleum software provider Kalibrate is now under the ownership of private equity firm Hanover Bidco.

Hanover Bidco will pay $1.13 per share of Kalibrate, totaling more than $38 million.

“We continue to make good progress within our core markets, deepening our customer relationships and winning additional contracts. With continued investment in our new products of Merchandise Pricing/Promotion and B2B/Wholesale Pricing, we are developing additional growth opportunities with our client base,” said Kalibrate CEO Bob Stein. “Whilst this strength underpins our belief in our products and long-term growth plans, the time and investment required to convert those growth ambitions continue to extend, compounded by the delays in deregulating markets that we’ve previously announced. I, along with the rest of the Kalibrate board, intend to recommend the offer [to speed those processes].”

Three Hanover executives have been appointed to the board of Kalibrate as nonexecutive directors, effective immediately. These include Matthew Peacock, Hanover’s founding partner; Tom Russell, partner; and Jog Dhody, operating partner.

Hanover has pushed acceptances from Kalibrate over the 99% threshold. Kalibrate’s shares will be delisted on Aug. 11.

For more than 20 years, Manchester, England-based Kalibrate has advised fuel and convenience retailers worldwide on how to be best-in-class operators in the fast-changing marketplace. Kalibrate provides strategic expertise and technology solutions in fuel pricing, location planning, merchandise promotions and global market intelligence. These solutions have been deployed in more than 70 countries with hundreds of clients of all sizes, including oil companies, convenience stores and supermarkets.

London-based Hanover Investors Management LLP was founded in 2002 and actively intervenes in small and mid-size public companies in the United Kingdom. The company also invests in a broad range of contexts, including public and private companies, and across a range of instruments, including equity and debt. The company regularly acts as a catalyst for change on behalf of shareholders.

UPDATE: The Illinois Retail Merchants Association is appealing the recent court ruling that allowed Cook County’s sweetened-beverage tax to go into effect on Aug. 2. “We filed an appeal on court’s decision to grant Cook County’s Motion to Dismiss Sweetened Bev Tax lawsuit,” the association posted on Twitter. “Looking fwd to our day in court.”

CHICAGO — It’s coming a month later than planned, but the 1-cent-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages in Cook County, Ill., will begin Wednesday, Aug. 2, after a judge dismissed a lawsuit that challenged the tax as unconstitutional.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Kubasiak ruled July 28 that the tax does not violate the state constitution.

“The court is not charged with evaluating the progressive or regressive nature of this tax, or any tax. … Rather those determinations rest with economists, the county’s elected officials and those who ultimately bear the effect of the tax,” Kubasiak said, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune.

The tax will add 32 cents to the cost of 7-Eleven’s Big Gulp drink, $1.02 to a 2-liter bottle of soda and $2.88 to a 24-pack case of 12-ounce cans, for example.

“I can only imagine the outrage that is being felt by consumers throughout Cook County who may soon have to pay this tax,” Rob Karr, president and CEO of Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA), said after the decision was announced. IRMA filed the lawsuit along with several grocery retailers. Karr said he is reviewing legal options to continue the fight against the tax.

The county had been expecting the tax, which was originally scheduled to be enforced beginning July 1, to bring in $67.5 million this year and $200.6 million in 2018.

We are disappointed with the judge’s ruling on Cook County’s sweetened beverage tax. We are exploring our legal options.

— IL Retail Merch Asso (@ILRetail) July 28, 2017

WAWA, Pa. — During a special media preview on July 27 to announce the opening of two convenience stores in Broward County in Florida, Wawa Regional Real Estate Manager Ron Brill revealed the chain’s plans to expand into Miami-Dade County, continuing its push further south in the Sunshine State.

The two newly opened Broward County stores, in Davie and Pompano Beach, are Wawa’s southernmost locations, the company said.

Brill said the company expects to open its first three Miami-area Wawa stores in second-quarter 2018, according to a report by the Miami New Times.

Engineers have already targeted three sites and are looking for additional areas to explore across the county, he said. The company could open as many as 50 Wawa stores in Miami-Dade, with as many as 100 new stores set to debut across South Florida in the coming years.

Wawa opened its first Sunshine State location in July 2012. It celebrated the opening of its 100th store in Florida in late 2016.

Since then, it has opened more than 115 stores in Florida and throughout 2017, it plans to open 11 stores in Palm Beach and Broward counties and another 10 to 12 in 2018. Within the next five years, Wawa plans to make the South Florida region of Palm Beach and Broward counties home to 50 new Wawa stores. Wawa will also continue to open stores statewide, including 30 new Florida stores in 2017, and 25 to 30 Florida stores per year for the next several years

Although Brill did not reveal the locations of the Miami-area sites, the newspaper said the first Miami-Dade Wawa will likely be in North Miami Beach, citing a filing with Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer that shows plans for a gas station with a 6,600-square-foot store that includes restaurant facilities. The chain will partner with Krispy Kreme, replacing the current Krispy Kreme bake shop on the property, and will also use an adjacent piece of land, said the report.

Based in Wawa, Pa., Wawa has more than 750 c-stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Florida.