After working with convenience-store retailer MAPCO for nearly 20 years, Damian Wyatt is moving on to a new challenge. Wyatt, whose last day as director of sales and category management at MAPCO was May 10, has taken a job as vice president of retail, purchasing and merchandising at Leo’s Market and Eatery.
It’s a big shift to go from a chain with more than 300 c-stores across several states to one with four stores in and around Indianapolis—but for Wyatt, it’s a homecoming.
“This position became available to me over the course of the past several months, and it just felt right,” Wyatt told CSP in an exclusive interview. “I wasn't aggressively looking for anything. I've been happy with MAPCO for the better part of 18 years, but something just told me in the back of my mind, spiritually, that this was a very good move.”
In the early 2000s, Wyatt worked as a district manager at GasAmerica Services, based out of Greenfield, Indiana. He had heard about the job from his then-girlfriend’s (now wife’s) friend and roommate, Stephanie White (now White-Longworth), whose father, Richard Leo White, was part-owner and founder at GasAmerica. GasAmerica had more than 90 convenience stores in Indiana and Ohio and was sold to Speedway in 2012.
Fast forward seven years, and White-Longworth decided to open Leo’s Market and Eatery with her brother Keith White. The name Leo’s honors their late-father’s legacy.
“I’m going back to the beginning of my c-store roots and to that wonderful family and organization,” Wyatt said.
Leo’s is a small company with aspirations to grow, and Wyatt said after years of working in the industry, he can lend his expertise to help evolve the culture and the brand.
“Having the opportunity to have my thumbprint literally every single day on every single store, that excites me,” he said. “Just to be able to be in those stores every single day. I think it helps you, it allows you to be more personable with people. We’re a people-first business, and I think you can do great things with small numbers.”
Leo’s c-stores are around 10,000 to 12,000 square feet and feature a fresh eatery, homemade baked goods like kolaches and an interesting array of fun items that differs them from traditional c-stores, Wyatt said. Leo’s are located in Greenfield, Noblesville, McCordsville and Indianapolis, Indiana. A fifth location is slated to open by the end of the year in Lafayette, Indiana.
“We are thrilled to welcome Damian as our new vice president of retail, purchasing and merchandising,” said White-Longworth, president of Leo’s Market and Eatery. “Damian brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record of success to our team. With his expertise, we are confident that he will play an integral role in enhancing our brand and driving Leo’s to new heights, accelerating our plans for future growth.”
As to what he will miss most at MAPCO, Wyatt didn’t hesitate when he said it’d be the people, both internally and vendor partners.
“I’m going to miss that the most,” he said. “Just the quality of people who are at MAPCO and in our industry as a whole—it’s just something, really, really special.”
One of those people, Beth Barron, whom Wyatt hired about two years ago as a category manager, is taking over his role at MAPCO as director of category management. Barron (pictured below) was CSP's Category Manager of the Year in Behind the Counter this year.
“She’s very seasoned. She’s very savvy. She’s tough—she’s tough when she needs to be tough. And I think she’ll do an outstanding job taking over my role at MAPCO,” Wyatt said.
Wyatt, who spoke to CSP the day before his last day with MAPCO, said the change was bittersweet.
“I'm going to miss the heck out of it,” Wyatt said of MAPCO. “But I'm just very excited for the next chapter and [to] just see what Leo's has in store for the future. I can't wait to be a part of it.”
Franklin, Tennessee-based MAPCO was a subsidiary of Santiago, Chile-based Compania de Petroleos de Chile (COPEC). In 2023, COPEC split up MAPCO when it sold the 300-plus c-stores to Majors Management LLC and Alimentation Couche-Tard.
- Majors Management is No. 30 on CSP’s 2024 Top 40 Update to the 2023 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. Watch for the full 2024 Top 202 ranking in the June issue of CSP magazine and in CSP Daily News.
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