Free Cups of Coffee to Kick Off 2010

For those in need of an extra jolt to avoid dozing off this new year, the Framingham-based convenience store chain, Cumberland Farms will offer some assistance for what is sure to be the best price for a cup of coffee in 2010 - free.

From 5 p.m. on New Year's Eve until 5 a.m. New Year's Day Cumberland Farms locations across the Northeast and Florida - except for those with Dunkin' Donuts service - will be offering complimentary hot cups of Farmhouse Blend coffee for the third year in a row.


“We encourage drivers to have fun and stay safe and alert this holiday season,” the company's president, Ari Haseotes, said in a press release today announcing the promotion. “Offering free coffee on New Year’s Eve is one way for us to let our customers know we care about them.”

Cumberland Farms' New Norton, MA Store Fundraises for Area School

To celebrate the grand opening of its latest remodeled convenience store here, Cumberland Farms kicked off a communitywide fundraiser yesterday to support the students at Norton High School.

"We are dedicated to making life a little bit easier for the residents of Norton," Ari Haseotes, president of Cumberland Farms' retail division, said in a statement. "This fundraiser is our way of saying thank you for the support the town has given us through the years."

Beginning yesterday, the company will donate 20 cents from every ChillZone fountain beverage and cup of coffee sold at the revamped store to the Norton High School Student Activity Agency, with a minimum donation of $1,000, the retailer stated. The donation will support students in need of financial assistance, as well as fund class field trips and awards ceremonies, among other activities, according to the convenience store chain.

"We are grateful for Cumberland Farms' support as our extracurricular activities are vitally important to our students' experience at Norton High School," Norton High School Principal Raymond Dewar said in a statement.

The newly remodeled Cumberland Farms store design features a fresh-food focused menu, a variety of sandwiches that can be toasted on site, milkshakes, flatbread breakfast sandwiches and personal pepperoni pizzas. The store also boasts a self-service coffee bar featuring the chain's new Farmhouse Blend coffee, as well as its trademark ChillZone fountain drink area.

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Cumberland Farms holds benefit for Mansfield, MA High School

Cumberland Farms is kicking off the grand opening of its newest convenience store located in Mansfield, with a fundraiser to support the students at Mansfield High School.

Starting Sept. 14 the company will donate 20 cents from every ChillZone beverage and cup of coffee sold at the new 30 Chauncey Street, Mansfield store to the Mansfield High School Student Activities Fund. The fund benefits class trips, proms, dances and senior activities. Cumberland Farms intends to raise at least $1,000 for the school fund, with the help of the community.

“We are pleased to have Cumberland Farms’ support for the many co-curricular activities that are of critical importance to our students,” said Mansfield Principal Joseph Maruszczak. “Cumberland Farms’ fundraiser will help to ensure that after school enrichment activities will continue to add to the experience of Mansfield High School.”

“We are looking forward to making life a little bit easier for the residents of Mansfield, and that goes for our next door neighbors at the high school too,” said Ari Haseotes, president of Cumberland Farms Retail Division. “This fundraiser is our way of saying thank you for the warm welcome the town has given us.”

Visitors to the new Cumberland Farms will notice a change upon taking the first step through the front door. From a wide variety of sandwiches that can be toasted on site, to thick chocolate milkshakes, flatbread breakfast sandwiches and even personal pepperoni pizzas, the new menu is squarely focused on fresh food, and is steeped in the company’s farm-family heritage. Customers can be their own baristas at the coffee bar, stocked with the delicious new Farmhouse Blend, or opt for a cold beverage at the trademark ChillZone.

The Mansfield store is the company’s third new model store in Massachusetts, part of a multi-year, multi-million dollar investment in the brand.

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Cumberland Farms Believe and Achieve Scholarships Awarded

Graduating high school seniors from across Cumberland Farms' 11 state service area have been awarded Cumberland Farms Believe & Achieve Scholarships of $1,000 towards their college expenses, the Framingham, Mass.-based retailer said.This is the third year that Cumberland Farms awarded the scholarships to promising students. As part of the company's Corporate Giving Initiative, the scholarship is open to students entering college and who live within 30 miles of any Cumberland Farms outlet in the Northeast and Florida. While the initiative takes academic performance into account, the award also considers the student's financial need."We are proud that our Believe and Achieve program can support 130 college-bound students, which will help defray the cost of tuition or ease the costs for books," said Cumberland Farms president Ari Haseotes.

Cumberland Farms' New Concept Store

The newly opened Cumberland Farms convenience store on the highly travelled Route 6 here looks like no other of its kind. Gone are the blue and orange accents that have graced the chain’s stores for so many years. Instead, as a symbol of all that is new and different about this prototype store, a green and blue Cumberland Farms logo stands tall above the store entrance and on forecourt signs.

"Obviously there’s a lot of heritage in our logo, it’s been around for almost 70 years, and we wanted to be careful to pay it the respect it deserves," Ari Hasetoes, president of the Canton, Mass.-based convenience chain, told CSNews Online at the store’s grand opening ceremony last Friday. "But we also wanted to be able to morph ourselves into a new generation and communicate to customers that we’re not just about packaged beverages or milk anymore, we’re about fresh foods.

"The iconic tree symbol is now green, and has changed to resemble a sprout with leaves that is encircled by a ring of dots that grow larger as they move clockwise. Below that, the word “Cumberland” is blue, and the word "Farms" is green."It’s not just a logo, that logo will only adorn stores that have received the new fresh products and the new coffee and fountain offer," he said. "That really exemplifies and communicates what we are about now, which is fresh products, that’s why we introduced green into it."Heralded by the company as a new definition of convenience store, its offerings are based on fresh prepared foods and foodservice. In fact, using the cashier counter as a divider -- it is placed in the middle of the store’s back wall -- the left half of the store is dedicated to foodservice, while the right is the more traditional convenience items.

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Cumberland Farms donations to honor Laconia Police Officer

Cumberland Farms officials are honoring a Laconia police officer for showing compassion to a man he had arrested for shoplifting food.

The company will honor Officer Jeff Wholley on Friday with donations to the police relief fund and a statewide food bank.

Last Jan. 7, Wholley arrested a man who shoplifted four pre-made sandwiches, valued at $9.16, from the Cumberland Farms store on Court Street. Later, however, upon learning that Benjamin M. Berry, 32, took the sandwiches because he was hungry as well as homeless, Wholley returned to the store, paid for the sandwiches himself and gave them to Berry.

To acknowledge Wholley's actions, Cumberland Farms President Ari Haseotes will present a $1,000 donation to the Laconia Police Relief Fund and $2,500 to the New Hampshire Food Bank during an 11:30 a.m. ceremony Friday at the Laconia Salvation Army. In addition to the donations, Cumberland Farms will provide lunch for the Salvation Army patrons.

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Cumberland Farms and Gulf: A marriage of convenience

When Joe Petrowski got the opportunity to serve as Gulf Oil’s president and CEO in 2005, he jumped at the chance. Not only was he fascinated by the energy industry, but the job allowed him to return to his native Boston area.
Petrowski grew up in Brockton and attended Harvard, where he wrote his thesis on the gasoline business. After graduation, he went to work in the energy industry.
In 2005, he came to Gulf, a wholesale petroleum distributor then headquartered in Chelsea. Since October, he has been CEO of Gulf Oil and Cumberland Farms (Gulf is a subsidiary of Cumberland). Ron Sabia is now the president and COO of Gulf, and Ari Haseotes is the president of Cumberland Farms.
Like Petrowski, 54, Cumberland Farms has local roots. It was started as a farm in Cumberland, R.I. With 600 stores from Maine to Delaware, and as far west as Pennsylvania, it is now the seventh largest convenience store operator in the U.S. There are about 2,500 Gulf stations in that same area.
In May, Cumberland Farms will move out of its Canton headquarters and Gulf will move out of its Newton offices. The two companies’ 400 corporate employees will be housed in the same office in Framingham.
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