STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Sheetz will look for the best West Virginia pepperoni roll to be sold in its West Virginia stores. The uproar on social media which followed the company’s announcement last week to go with a sole provider of pepperoni rolls from Pennsylvania prompted the decision.
“We’ve heard loud and clear that’s important to our customers and we couldn’t be more excited to execute on that feedback,” said Sheetz Brand Manager Ryan Sheetz on MetroNews ‘Talkline’ Friday.
Pepperoni rolls are special to West Virginia since they were invented here. Sheetz said they also sell better here, but they wanted to make the pepperoni roll a regional product.
“We said, ‘Hey, this product does so well in West Virginia, let’s find a company who can take this into all of our other states,” he said. “We operate 500 stores in a six-state footprint.”
Three West Virginia bakeries have produced the pepperoni rolls sold in 177 Sheetz stores up until now. Abruzzino Bakery, Home Industry Bakery, and Rogers and Mazza were the providers of the pepperoni rolls. Sheetz officials met with all three companies this week in what was called a productive meeting. They discussed the capabilities of all three bakeries and their ability to produce enough product and a network capable of delivering the product.
“We talked about the new opportunity on the table to find the best West Virginia pepperoni roll to all of our West Virginia stores,” he said. “Now, we’re opening up the door to anyone else in West Virginia. We want to know who else is out there and who can produce this product. At the end of the day we want to find the best West Virginia pepperoni roll to be sold in our West Virginia stores.”
Sheetz didn’t rule out the chance a West Virginia company might someday provide the pepperoni rolls to all of its stores across the mid-Atlantic region. However, Sheetz is unapologetic about its business model which is fueled by its central distribution network.
“It’s always going to be a really good business decision for us to find as many products as we can to run though that distribution system,” said Sheetz. “Step one for us is to deliver on that customer feedback and provide West Virginia made pepperoni rolls in West Virginia stores. That’s the opportunity on the table right now. Step two, three, four, or five I don’t know how that will look down the road, but right now we’re committed to executing upon that customer driven feedback we got.”