Celebrates the grand opening of three Fort Myers-area locations.
Wawa Inc. has announced the latest milestone in its Florida development—the
grand opening of its first three stores in the Fort Myers area—each opened on Thursday, April 23, 2015—marking its official entrance into Southwest Florida.
The stores are located at:
• 2370 Colonial Boulevard, Fort Myers, FL
• 12701 S. Cleveland Avenue Fort Myers, FL
• 761 Del Prado Blvd. North, Cape Coral, FL
To celebrate this exciting triple header grand opening event, Wawa hosted three in-store celebrations, each including a ribbon cutting, charitable hoagies for heroes competition benefiting local charities identified by the local fire and police from each area, and launched of its Lending a Helping Hoagie program with the Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida.
As Wawa opens three stores in the Fort Myers area, the Wawa Foundation, Wawa’s non-profit foundation through which all charitable giving is funneled, has committed to donating a portion of hoagie sales for these three stores (up to $5,000 per store) to Harry Chapin Food Bank, with a goal to raise and donate $15,000 in one week and help fight hunger in the Fort Myers community.
“We are thrilled to celebrate this tremendous milestone in our sunshine state expansion, as we open our hearts and doors in the Southwest Florida region,” said Chris Gheysens, Wawa’s president and CEO. “This significant step into
a new part of the Florida market not only furthers our ability to invest in Florida by building new stores and creating more jobs, but allows us to serve more communities and fulfill more lives each day. We are honored and excited to open three stores on the same day, and welcome our new neighbors three times over.”
Wawa’s Continued Florida Expansion
As a part of the celebration, Gheysens discussed the company’s continued
expansion into Florida market. Since its entrance into the Florida market in July of 2012, Wawa has opened 62 stores. By year’s end, Wawa will have opened 25 new stores in the Sunshine State at the conclusion of 2015. By 2016, Wawa expects to hit the milestone of its 100th store open in the state of Florida, and during that year begin to
break ground in the Southeast portion of the state.
Wawa Fort Myers Grand Opening Events Details
At each event, representatives from the Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida, City of Fort Myers and Lee County, and Cape Coral police and firefighters; Wawa associates and customers; and Wawa’s mascot, Wally Goose, joined in a ceremonial ribbon cutting at each of the locations.
The event also included a charitable Hoagies for Heroes triple header contest, as representatives from local fire and police, or their designated charity representatives, faced off in a battle of bravery, skill and sandwich-making expertise.
Each new Wawa store will employ nearly 50 associates, all of which are new positions brought to the area through the development of the stores. Associates in these full and part-time positions will not only receive competitive salaries and health benefits but will have the opportunity to be enrolled in Wawa’s employee stock ownership plan.
