White River Junction
Framingham, Mass.-based Cumberland Farms has embarked upon a multi-year rebuilding program to upgrade its convenience markets and gas stations across seven states.
The White River Junction rebuild, estimated to cost $1 million according to plans on file at Hartford Town Hall, follows similar upgrades at Cumberland Farms locations in Windsor, Woodstock and Claremont.
The 1.77-acre lot site will feature a newly built 4,738-square-foot store that will “showcase modernized architectural features” and offer a “full coffee bar” as well as “freshly prepared food items such as pizza, mac-and-cheese bites, hot dogs and cold sandwiches,” said Bryan Pierce, a marketing associate with Cumberland Farms, in an emailed statement.
One of largest privately owned convenience store chains in the country, Cumberland Farms operates 559 stores in New England, the mid-Atlantic states and Florida.
In recent years the company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild nearly 300 stores to offer a greater selection of food items in a bid to compete against Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks and others in the coffee-and-snacks market.
The new stores are typically twice the size of stores they replace, Pierce said, and include high-top counter seating.
Company officials have said the goal is to provide more ready-to-go meals, sandwiches and healthier options prepared at its Westborough, Mass., facility in addition to the regular provisions of salty snacks, sugar items, soft drinks, energy beverages and beer. There also will be a patio with three tables for seating on the north side of the building, the plans show.
The new convenience store will be 812 square feet smaller than the old store and have one less fuel pump — three, including one for diesel, instead of four. Nonetheless, the fuel pump island will be covered by a 2,376-square-foot canopy compared with the former 912-square-foot canopy.
Under Chief Executive Ari Haseotes, a third-generation family owner and Harvard MBA, Cumberland Farms made a strategic shift two years ago to exit the gasoline supply business — which the Boston Business Journal reported accounted for $6.5 billion of the company’s $10 billion in annual sales — and instead focus on its core convenience store chain.
Cumberland Farms initially got into the gasoline distribution business in 1986 when it acquired the rights to distribute gasoline in 11 Northeast states under the Gulf Oil name from Chevron USA Inc.
Eventually, Cumberland Farms bought the Gulf storage and terminal facilities from Chevron in addition to national distribution rights, but in 2015 it sold that business to Boston private equity firm ArcLight Capital Partners for a reported $800 million.
A representative for Cumberland Farms said the company would not comment on whether the White River Junction store will continue to sell gasoline under the Gulf brand when it reopens later this year.
Cumberland Farms was founded in 1938 by Vasilios and Aphrodite Haseotes, immigrants from Greece. The company has had its ups and downs over the years — the low point coming in 1992 when business debts incurred by a family member forced the company into bankruptcy.
In 2015 Forbes magazine ranked the Haseotes family as No. 73 on the list of the wealthiest U.S. families, with a net worth pegged at $3.9 billion.
John Lippman can be reached at 603-727-3219 or jlippman@vnews.com.
