NACS President and CEO Frank Gleeson on the Future of Convenience
Six months into the role, Frank Gleeson has covered more ground than most industry leaders manage in years. As President and CEO of NACS, he has crossed America for a listening tour, meeting retailers, walking store floors, and taking the pulse of an industry mid transformation.
Speaking alongside hosts Dan Munford and Elaine Kanak, CMO of Vontier, and guest Joe Heather, regional general manager – Northern Europe of Deliverect, Gleeson laid out a clear read on where the sector stands. Fuel is transitioning at different speeds in different places, he said, but the real story sits elsewhere. Food has quietly become the thing that decides who wins.
“NACS connects people,” Gleeson said. “This network we have, where we’re sharing knowledge, sharing best practice, and teaching people how to run their businesses better, is the fundamental driver of success.”
That belief runs through his travel schedule. Between the association’s Leadership Forum in Miami and its State of the Industry Summit in Chicago, Gleeson pointed to a packed calendar built around bringing people into the same room. He said that these events offer deep connections and “allow people to come together, senior leadership talk to each other, share ideas, and collaborate.”
The numbers back him up. Gleeson pointed to Casey’s quarterly results and Yesway’s IPO as evidence that operators leaning into food are pulling ahead. He asserts some convenience retailers now run a better quick service kitchen than the quick service chains themselves. That shift, he said, gives stores a real economic edge once food is layered on top, and he predicted trouble ahead for traditional QSRs rather than for convenience.
Kanak brought data of her own to the conversation, describing recent Vontier research into loyalty across the American convenience channel. “While three-fourths of consumers reported that they are brand loyal, less than half are actually enrolled in any kind of loyalty program,” she said, pointing to a gap retailers still have room to close.
Gleeson is looking ahead to the NACS Show in Las Vegas this October, urging retailers to walk the Expo floor, meet their peers, and bring ideas home.
Catch the full conversation with Frank Gleeson wherever you get your podcasts, or listen and watch on globalconvenience.com, where new episodes of the Future of Convenience podcast are released every other Tuesday.
