Energy North (EN) has had its sights set on growth since Jeff Black officially took the helm as CEO in 2022. Black, the second generation of the family business, has been busy developing the company culture, growing the leadership team and expanding the company.

This spring EN debuted a new flagship Haffner’s site that features a revamped design and two new foodservice offerings. Now it plans to refresh its full portfolio of stores to include elements of the new concept while rolling out the Haffner’s banner across its fleet of stores. As it looks to grow through new-to-industry (NTI) stores and acquisitions, the chain is also focused on its internal programs. It’s piloting a new loyalty program and introducing self-checkout kiosks, among other initiatives. At the end of June EN introduced the “It Kicks” foundation, named after the Haffner’s tagline “It Kicks.” The foundation offers a pathway for community service.

“Profoundly impacting the communities that we serve — that’s always been my No. 1 goal,” Black said. “I think that’s most important to me, and that’s why the launch of this foundation means a lot to me.”

For all these initiatives and more, CStore Decisions is recognizing EN as a 2023 Chain to Watch.

From The Beginning

EN can trace its roots to 1981 when Black’s father, Ken Black, founded the company as a wholesale gas business in Massachusetts. In the mid-90s, EN purchased some of the dealer sites that were underperforming and began operating the convenience stores. In 1996, EN committed to the c-store business with the debut of its original flagship location in Everett, Mass. In 2008, EN completed its first big acquisition of eight stores in New Hampshire. That same year, Black’s father approached him about joining the business. When Black expressed interest, they decided to continue to grow the company.

In 2015, EN purchased the assets of Haffner’s.

“That was a big game changer for us,” Black said. “It allowed us to really start to accelerate our growth and become part of an iconic brand that’s been around since 1925, that was started by Jack Haffner, hence the name. That was a launching point for where we are today and the pride that we take in the Haffner’s name.”

From there, EN continued to grow through multistore acquisitions, including 11 sites in Massachusetts from VERC Enterprises in 2021.

Today, EN, headquartered in Lawrence, Mass., operates 71 sites in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. Twenty-five feature the Haffner’s banner, while seven are Tradewinds locations in Bangor, Maine.

“The Tradewinds name really spoke to the people around that area, so we decided to keep it and make that the banner for those sites up there,” Black said.

While the Tradewinds and Haffner’s sites feature unbranded gas, 31 of its sites are branded Mobil, seven are branded Gulf and one is branded Irving Oil. The stores don’t currently offer electric vehicle (EV) chargers, but new constructions will include the wiring for chargers, as Black expects EV to become more important in the future.

“We’re going to need to adapt to that. But we feel like right now there’s other areas that we would rather invest our capital into to make a better offering to our customers,” he said.

Family Owned and Operated

Despite its growth, EN remains 100% family owned.

“I think that makes us really unique in today’s world of the growing large conglomerates,” Black said.

Black’s sister, Kristina Wood, now heads the It Kicks Foundation as executive director. His cousin, Kevin Riley, is the president of operations and finance. His aunt, Karen Riley, handles human resources and payroll. His mom, Kathy Black, works as a brand ambassador and does mystery shops. His father, Ken Black, is semi-retired, having stepped down from the CEO role three years ago, but still consults on major decisions.

Black grew up in the family business, accompanying his dad on site visits from the time he was six years old.

Over the years, Black held various roles with the company, starting as a cashier in high school. He went on to manage one of the company’s liquor stores before serving as customer service rep for the dealer locations. When he came on fulltime in 2012, he ran the company’s supply and trade division. After the Haffner’s acquisition, Black became the chief operating officer (COO) of the heating oil division before being appointed COO of the full company, from retail and wholesale to trucking. By 2020, Black was handling the day-to-day operations for the company. When his father officially handed over the reins in 2022, Black took on the role of CEO.

Since taking the helm, Black has been focused on building the company’s culture and creating a more robust leadership team both at the executive and management levels that will be instrumental in helping the company expand.

Flagship Design

This past May, Energy North debuted its new flagship Haffner’s location on Merrimack Street in Lawrence, Mass. The 6,000-square-foot store contains both a Sal’s Pizza and the first-ever Crack’d Kitchen Express and features murals that show off the history of Lawrence, which was an old mill town. Colorful, shiny glass tiling accent the various beverage sections.

“One of the big things with launching this new flagship site in Lawrence is we are going through a whole major brand redevelopment for the inside store itself,” Black said.

Now that the chain has begun to scale and develop some concentration in the New England marketplace, it plans to roll out the Haffner’s banner — or some variation of it — to the majority of its stores.

“A unified brand name for the stores is where we’re heading. That’s one of the big things we’re working on to make sure people know who we are because we’re not done at 71 (stores), and we’re continuing to grow,” Black said.

EN is set to roll the flagship design out to other locations, with two remodels already underway.

EN is working on a raze and rebuild at the entrance of Gloucester, Mass., an iconic fishing town, that is expected to open by the end of summer. The site is the second-oldest Mobil station in the country and will continue to fly the Mobil flag while the c-store sports the Haffner’s banner.

EN is also set to raze and rebuild a site in New Hampshire, and it has other sites on its radar for future raze-and-rebuild projects.

“The plan is to have a refresh of basically every site in the portfolio, plus continue to build NTI stores, as well as continued acquisition growth,” Black said.

Food Forward

On the foodservice front, EN has partnered with Sal Lupoli, founder of Sal’s Pizza.

“Sal is iconic in Lawrence, Mass., but he’s also iconic in the New England marketplace,” Black said.

Sal’s Pizza is the exclusive pizza provider at Fenway Park and TD Boston Garden. The brand also services K-12 schools from Maine to Connecticut.

“I grew up eating his pizza,” Black said.

EN partnered with Sal’s Pizza to create a c-store specific concept, which it tested in its Littleton, Mass., store.

“It worked out unbelievably well,” Black said. “We are working on a joint partnership between our companies. Not only are we trying to roll out the Sal’s Pizza in our locations, but we are also having active conversations about rolling it out to other locations in New England, and eventually further out.”

Today the Sal’s Pizza program is available at six EN locations, including the flagship site. Pending space and permits, the chain plans to roll Sal’s Pizza out to as many of its locations as it can and then introduce the program to its dealer sites. The program features fresh ingredients and extra-large pizza slices. The store offers seven to eight different varieties of slices. Full 18-inch pies or personal pizzas are also available.

“We’re hoping to grow that for the lunch to dinner offerings,” Black said.

EN also embarked on a joint venture with Crack’d, a morning daypart concept with fresh coffee, breakfast sandwiches and eggs made to order. EN had been in search of a unique morning program.

“We wanted to create something special, but we wanted to be able to go to market quicker. Similar to what we did with Sal’s Pizza, we wanted to find someone that already knew how to do this, would train us to do it, had a great offering and program available that we could operate and had a brand name that’s already been developed,” Black said.

So far, Crack’d has been introduced to the flagship location and is scheduled to be added to future NTIs. As with Sal’s Pizza, EN plans to roll out Crack’d to as many of its locations as it can, and then, once the concept is developed, offer it to other chains.

“We’re going to take over the operations (of Sal’s and Crack’d), so we get to marry their knowledge of foodservice and our knowledge of the c-store space and how we need to make things move a little bit quicker than a traditional restaurant,” Black said.

EN also offers Dunkin’ at some of its sites. It’s in the process of finalizing a Crack’d bean-to-cup offering for the locations that don’t sell coffee via its quick-service offerings. Most of the chain’s stores with a coffee program, whether it be Dunkin’ or the new Crack’d concept, feature drive-throughs.

“We try to put drive-throughs in wherever we possibly can,” Black said.

Customers can also order Crack’d or Sal’s Pizza through third-party delivery apps. EN also added touchscreen dispensers at the flagship site. Soon customers will be able to order food at the dispenser and have it delivered to their car.

Growth Initiatives

Because EN features a large heating oil and propane division, its stores are equipped to take orders and payments for its heating oil and propane customers.

EN also features a car wash business with 12 tunnel washes and 10 touchless car washes. All of the car washes are branded Haffner’s.

“Our objective is to continue expanding and strengthening that division,” Black said. He emphasized that Haffner’s has established a longstanding reputation for its exceptional car washes.

EN is currently working to develop a loyalty program that includes a discount on gas, car wash and heating oil propane. Within the loyalty program, it’s also building out its unlimited car wash program. It named the loyalty card the “Kick Card” after the Haffner’s tagline, “It Kicks.” EN is currently piloting the rewards program with its employees before it rolls it out to its locations.

EN is also in the process of adding self-checkout kiosks to all of its locations.

As the chain works to engage employees, it has also launched a texting app, called “Go Happy,” to better communicate with workers.

“It’s helped our turnover rate come down significantly since we launched it,” Black said.

EN works to be a destination for both customers and employees. A few years ago, it rebuilt its office and added a gym and a full kitchen as a way of providing more amenities to employees.

“Over the past two-and-a-half years, our focus has been on embracing our core values of family, doing the right thing and safety, while envisioning the future,” Black said. He noted that during this period, the company made significant progress by assembling a brand-new executive team. Additionally, as the chain expanded from a mere 25 employees to now over 1,000, careful attention was given to assessing and enhancing the company culture to align it with the broader chain it has become today.

Growing beyond its current 71 sites is a major focus for EN. EN has hired a construction team and created a building department dedicated to identifying pieces of land or opportunities to raze and rebuild stores or build NTI stores.

“I think we’re a very unique company that has a lot of different verticals, and to be able to marry that all together and bring it to a c-store offering, I think is very unique and something that we’re going to continue to lean on and grow within the company,” Black said. “I’m extremely proud of where we are and where we’re going; the team that I’m working with, what we’re doing in the community and the direction that we’re heading — I couldn’t be prouder. And again, I’m proud of the team that is making all this possible.”