Foodservice

CINCINNATI— Kroger is extending its summer fuel savings program through the fall and holiday seasons. Customers can now earn and redeem fuel points to save up to $2.00 off per gallon at Kroger Family of Stores Fuel Centers through Dec. 31.

"At our customers' request we are pleased to extend our special offer doubling potential fuel savings up to $2.00 per gallon through the busy fall and holiday shopping seasons," said Michael Donnelly, Kroger's SVP of merchandising.

New York -- A switch to LED lighting technology in its refrigerated coolers has resulted in combined energy and maintenance savings of more than $1 million annually for convenience store operator Wawa.

The new technology, Immersion from GE Lighting Solutions, has been installed in Wawa’s 600 locations across the Mid-Atlantic region, and has reduced refrigerated cooler/freezer electricity and maintenance expense by a combined 78% since its adoption.

Dallas -- SRS Real Estate Partners announced that FreeBirds World Burrito has selected seven new locations slated to open in Central California later this year.
 
The seven sites in California are located in Sacramento, Tracy, Fresno, Clovis, Turlock, and two sites in Modesto, and all were acquired from Qdoba franchisee 4G Management. All locations will be converted to company owned and operated units and range from 2,000 sq. ft. to 4,000 sq. ft.
 

Cary, N.C. -- The Pantry reported Tuesday that net income dipped to $14.8 million in the third quarter, compared with $19 million in the same quarter last year.

Total revenue fell to $2.14 billion from $2.26 billion. Wall Street expected revenue of $2.15 million.

Orlando, Fla. -- Convenience-store operator WaWa has entered the Florida market, opening a store across from Sea World in Orlando. Four additional units are scheduled to open in the Orlando market during the next four five weeks.

Henderson, Nev. -- Efficiency upgrades at 621 7-Eleven stores in California, Washington, and Oregon, will result in an anticipated energy savings of approximately $1.2 million annually.

The upgrades were completed by Castrovilla, a subsidiary of Blue Earth, an energy efficiency and renewable energy services company. The project involved the installation of energy efficient electronically commutated motors, anti-sweat heater controls, evaporator fan controls, gaskets, door closers and strip curtains.

LAKELAND, Fla. — Publix is testing online ordering of its deli products in one Lakeland, Fla. store beginning Aug. 3. Through the service, customers an order custom subs, wraps, sliced meats and cheeses. Publix expects to roll out the program to 50 additional stores later this year.

Dallas -- 7-Eleven announced that it has completed a transaction to acquire 18 Open Pantry convenience store locations in Wisconsin, primarily in the greater Milwaukee and Madison markets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Houston -- On average, Hispanics visit convenience stores more frequently on a monthly basis compared to non-Hispanics, according to a recently released report by The NPD Group. The report, entitled The Hispanic Convenience Store Shopper, finds that Hispanics overall made almost two more visits a month than non-Hispanics to major oil chain c-stores, and nearly one more visit over a 30-day period to traditional c-stores than non-Hispanics.

Dallas -- 7-Eleven said Thursday it has completed its previously announced transaction with convenience store operator Strasburger Enterprises and has acquired 23 c-stores in Texas, mostly under the Quix banner.

Terms of the deal, which brings 7-Eleven’s Texas store count to 570, weren’t disclosed.