Ed Burcher Joins Coen Markets as COO
WASHINGTON, Pa. — Foodservice veteran Ed Burcher is taking on a new role at Coen Markets. He is joining the regional c-store operator in the newly created position of chief operating officer.
Coen Markets operates nearly 40 Ruff Creek Market locations in southwestern Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia.
Burcher has been working with Coen Markets in a consulting capacity for the past year and a half.
"Ed will work together with Mary Beth Kohl to continue our growth and focus to achieve best practices," said Charles C. McIlvaine, chairman of Coen Oil.
Burcher will have leadership responsibility for foodservice, category management, operations and IT for the regional convenience store chain, while Kohl will lead retail operations and maintenance.
Burcher spent 18 years at Wawa Inc., starting as a customer service representative before moving to store leader and then district leader. He was eventually promoted to Wawa's corporate office to be the lead manager for fresh foods and foodservice in the retailer's marketing department.
He was recruited by Petro-Canada to build the Canadian company's new retail licensee program and later led the design and implementation of the Neighbours store brand, a unique foodservice-focused store in Canada. There, Burcher oversaw the rollout and refinement of the prototype and opened more than 20 new locations. He also led the development of an alternative brand/smaller store format called Neighbours Coffee, which grew to more than 50 sites.
In addition, he created and executed the foodservice menu across all 600-plus stores in the Petro-Canada network.
After leaving Petro-Canada, Burcher formed his own consulting firm.
He is also a founding member of the Convenience Store News How To Crew, an advisory board of leading foodservice experts who lend their knowledge and expertise to CSNews' industry-leading foodservice coverage. He plans to continue his other non-competing consulting duties.
"We have aggressive plans for Coen Markets to realize our vision of making our company the regional favorite convenience chain in our market area with the strongest customer loyalty," McIlvaine said. "Our team working together with communication and collaboration is our best chance to realize this vision."