Dive Brief:
- Dash In held a grand opening for a c-store in Concord, North Carolina — its first location in the Tar Heel State — on Monday, a company spokesperson confirmed to C-Store Dive.
- The store, which is about 25 miles northeast of downtown Charlotte, offers Dash In’s made-to-order fresh food program, featuring items such as bistro sandwiches, salads and flatbreads.
- This is the company’s first step in a long-planned expansion into the Carolinas.
Dive Insight:
While it’s not clear exactly how many sites the company is planning for the Carolinas, Dash In was under contract to acquire 16 locations across North and South Carolina in fall 2025 and had bought a site in Charlotte earlier in the year.
“Proud to see this milestone become a reality,” said Brian Chase, senior director of retail operations for Dash In, in a LinkedIn post. “Expanding into a new market takes tremendous teamwork, planning, and execution, and it’s rewarding to see the vision come to life.”
In a 2023 interview with C-Store Dive, Julian “Blackie” Wills, CEO of Dash-In parent company the Wills Group, said the expansion into the Carolinas was part of a plan to triple the company’s store count by 2030, from a total of 55 at the time. The company now has more than 60 locations in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, according to its website.
“We know that’s where the population is moving, because [the Carolinas] are tax friendly states, they’re business-friendly states with a lower cost of living,” Wills said. “We want to follow that population growth into the Carolinas.
