At a Glance

  • 7-Eleven has hired Richard Guidry as senior director of fresh food for its U.S. and Canadian convenience stores, Guidry announced via LinkedIn on Wednesday.
  • Guidry brings about two decades of convenience store operations and foodservice leadership experience to 7-Eleven. According to his LinkedIn profile, his most recent position in the convenience retail industry was senior vice president of foodservice at GPM Investments, where he helped launch the company's Fas Craves food program last year.
  • Guidry joins 7-Eleven as the company continues its multi-year investment in building food-focused convenience stores to enhance its foodservice reputation and profits in North America.

Deep Dive

As of press time, Guidry and a 7-Eleven spokesperson had not responded to requests for comment. In his post, Guidry said that in addition to working with 7-Eleven's foodservice team, he will also collaborate with the company's store support centers, franchisees, and corporate store teams.

Guidry's appointment comes about a month after Benjamin Lucky was removed from his role as senior director of fresh food development at 7-Eleven, a position he held for about 14 months. At the time of his departure, Lucky told C-Store Dive that his termination was part of 7-Eleven taking a "different direction."

"This is a tremendous opportunity to help shape the future of a vast network covering approximately 13,000 stores and the world's number one convenience store chain," Guidry said in the announcement.

Guidry was at GPM from October 2023 to July of last year, when he left the company. According to his LinkedIn profile, as senior vice president of foodservice, he was responsible for leading all kitchen development and execution across GPM's more than 1,300 corporate-operated convenience stores and its QSRs.

The Fas Craves program he helped launch offers cold and hot grab-and-go items such as crispy chicken biscuits, potato wedges, mozzarella sticks, jumbo wings, chicken sandwiches, and burgers. GPM also recently rolled out a fresh ground coffee program.

Earlier in his career, Guidry held various operations and marketing roles at RaceTrac for over 15 years. He then spent four years at Casey's General Stores, where he began working in the deli space, according to his LinkedIn profile.