Founded in 1902 as a dairy farm, Wawa now operates more than 500 convenience stores in five states. How does a rural turn-of-the-century farm turn into a chain of modern convenience stores? Wawa’s current president, Thère DuPont, has said that longevity begins and ends with quality products and excellent customer service. In an interview with Dairy Foods, DuPont recalled the company legend about Wawa customers in the 1950s who routinely left their house keys with the milkman so he could store the bottles in the icebox.

“What we’ve been able to do is to leverage that confidence that people have had in the milk and the drivers and bring that into the Wawa stores,” said DuPont, whose gene pool ties him on his father’s side to the chemical and industrial giant DuPont (where he sits on the Board of Directors), and on his mother’s side to Wawa’s founder, George Wood. Although he might be a corporate blueblood, DuPont started his career at Wawa behind the counter of a New Jersey franchise, where he worked weekends and double shifts.

Today the milkman has been replaced by the pizza guy, but the nearly 16,000 employees working for Wawa convenience stores are still putting a premium on simplifying customers’ lives and offering quality products. In fact, founder George Wood always emphasized superior quality. He launched Wawa Dairy with a prize herd of Guernsey cows, which produce creamy milk high in butterfat, and arranged to have bottled milk shipped by rail to West Philadelphia, where it was distributed from horse-drawn wagons.
To spread brand recognition, Wood entered Wawa Dairy products at milk shows and fairs, where they won blue ribbons, and he introduced the company’s first trademark – the Cloversweet seal – in 1908. When the dairy industry saw a push toward sanitary bottling conditions, Wood made “certified milk” Wawa’s signature product, endorsed by doctors for infants and adults.

Like all good companies, Wawa thrived on adaptation and innovation. In the 1960s, when lifestyles shifted from home delivery to stores, Grahame Wood (the grandson of George Wood) opened Wawa’s first food market in Folsom, PA. The stores were an ideal way to sell existing dairy products while branching out to other foods. The first Wawa market sold produce as well as deli meats and cheeses.

In 2005, Wawa, which regularly makes Forbes’ list of largest private companies, pulled in $3.8 billion selling coffee, salads, deli sandwiches, beverages, and gasoline. Ever mindful of grab-and-go culture, Wawa constantly refines its processes and products and has introduced prepackaged salads and sandwiches, coffee stations, and self-serve computer touch-screen menus for food orders.

Wawa still maintains a brisk wholesale business, supplying schools, hospitals, and restaurants with dairy products. In a world where 24/7 convenience is the norm, however, Wawa has had to hustle to distinguish its quality and convenience from that of competitors. Witness Wawa’s latest market adaptation: self-branded products. Wawa already offers customers 40 different varieties of Wawa-brand drinks, including iced tea and juice. Wawa coffee sells more than 125 million cups annually. Under the leadership of current CEO Howard Stoeckel (who calls himself “the Brand Ranger”), Wawa-brand snack foods are up next.

Just where did Wawa get its unique brand name? The company started out in Delaware County, PA, in the town of Wawa. Wawa was the Native American word for the Canadian geese that passed through the area during their annual migration. The company adopted the symbol of a flying goose, and Wawa’s current corporate culture emphasizes the kind of teamwork and cooperation that geese practice when flying in formation.