CSNews Exclusive: Wawa's Dick Wood, NACS' Hank Armour Add Reflections on C-store History

NEW YORK -- Two more industry Hall of Famers, Dick Wood, a member of the family who founded Wawa Inc., and Hank Armour, current president and CEO of NACS, have added their personal memories on the growth of the convenience store industry -- part of Convenience Store News’ special 40th anniversary microsite.

A lawyer, Wood went to work at Wawa in June 1970, at the age of 32, at the request of Wawa’s founder Grahame Wood. After doing legal work for the family business for seven years, Wood went on to become CFO, CIO and eventually president in 1977. He was inducted into the Convenience Store News Hall of Fame in 1996.

Wood recalls some of the more raucous early days of his involvement in the industry’s major trade association, NACS, and noted while the image of a c-store is better than it used to be, it still needs to be improved among consumers.

Armour, who was named president and CEO of NACS in 2004, founded West Star Corp. and was the first company to introduce branded foodservice into convenience stores in the Pacific Northwest. He was inducted into the Convenience Store News Hall of Fame in 2004.

CSNews’ special 40th anniversary microsite includes interviews with Wood, Armour and other industry luminaries.

Other 40th anniversary interviews:
-- Bob Seng, former president, Busy Bee Food Stores
-- Jere Thompson, former president of the Southland Corp. / 7-Eleven
-- Alain Bouchard, founder, chairman and CEO, Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.
-- Jim Callahan, Geo. H. Green Oil Co.
-- John Hansen, co-founder of Kwik Trip Inc.
-- John MacDougall, founder, Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes.
X
This ad will auto-close in 10 seconds