Gus Durso, Director of Retail Space Management, Wawa

Implementing Retail Space Planning
Gus Durso, Director of Retail Space Management, Wawa


In 2003 Wawa Inc. began a project to replace their enterprise resource planning tools. During the development of the business case, one of the tools identified as critical to supporting the business case included a retail space management tool. A Category Management organization and processes were in place, but there was no Merchandising or Retail Space Planning organization. During this presentation you will learn how Wawa Inc. implemented a Retail Space Management organization and processes to support Category Management. A current status of the implementation will also be reviewed
Topics will include the implementation of:

• A Consumer centric category management system.
• Floor and category space planning processes.
• Store clustering and efficient item assortment.
• Change management challenges.
• Retail Space Management organization
   

Wawa Inc. is a 570 store convenience food and gasoline retailer operating in the Mid-Atlantic States. Wawa celebrated their forty fifth anniversary in April of this year, with the opening of the first store in 1964. The Wawa Beverage &Dairy Company manufactures and supplies a wide variety of dairy, teas, fruit drinks and juices for their stores. The Wawa Beverage and Dairy Company have been operating for over one hundred years.

Gus Durso – Wawa Inc.

Gus Durso is Director of Merchandising and Retail Space Management with Wawa Inc. a 545 convenience store chain operating stores in the Mid Atlantic states. During his thirty year career he has held a variety of positions in Marketing and Field Operations. While implementing a Retail Space Planning organization he supported the SAP retail rollout as the Marketing Project and Process Design Manager. Gus also held the position of Category Management Director responsible for the Beverage, Snack, Tobacco, Grocery and non-food categories. While in this position he co-developed a customized category management product hierarchy, roles and strategies. He also managed the Wawa private label brand initiatives for the Hot Beverage, Cold Beverage and Snack categories.

Gus earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from Philadelphia’s Temple University, were he majored in Accounting and Marketing. He later earned his Masters of Science in Food Retailing at Saint Joseph’s University of Philadelphia. He has also completed a series of seminars related to process management and process design.