NACS Board of Directors Approves New Strategic Plan

LAS VEGAS — The NACS Board of Directors approved the association’s new strategic plan that will guide NACS’ activities and initiatives over the next five years.

The NACS “Advancing Convenience 2030” strategic plan was approved during the NACS Board of Directors meeting at the NACS Show. The NACS Show, the industry’s most comprehensive event, was October 6-9 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“We are reinvesting in the industry to accelerate its growth and shape its future, and our strategic plan sets out a broad course of action for the next five years,” said NACS President & CEO Frank Gleeson. “I am very excited about our strategic plan, which sets out some very ambitious—but achievable—objectives,” said Gleeson.

Gleeson said that “Advancing Convenience 2030” was developed with considerable input from NACS retailer and supplier members, NACS staff and NACS elected leaders, especially the NACS Board of Directors and Executive Committee.

“This strategic plan sets forth a clear roadmap for NACS to continue to reinvest in the industry and to champion, connect and accelerate the global convenience and fuel retailing industry,” said Annie Gauthier, NACS 2025-26 NACS chairman, who is CFO/Co-CEO at St. Romain Oil Co. LLC, which operates Y-Not Stop convenience stores in Louisiana.

Distilled into five enterprise goals, the NACS strategy is to:

1. Expand NACS’ influence as the trusted global voice for convenience and fuel retailing, shaping public policy, strengthening industry coalitions, sharing regulatory intelligence across markets and advancing members’ long-term competitiveness.
2. Grow and deepen retailer engagement and expand supplier growth and access across the United States and priority international markets, through membership, education, advocacy, thought leadership, expanding networking communities and a larger global ecosystem of year-round, scalable commercial platforms.
3. Make NACS the global convenience industry’s trusted source of data, insights, foresight and leadership development.
4. Build the industry’s innovation and digital ecosystem, creating scalable platforms, standards, data infrastructure and strategic initiatives that connect the global convenience ecosystem, accelerate growth and shape the future of convenience and fuel retailing.
5. Build a modern, globally capable, data-driven, AI-enabled enterprise that improves experiences, strengthens decision-making, streamlines operations and accelerates sustainable growth.

“At its heart, we are shifting NACS from being the leading trade association to the platform that powers convenience and fuel retailing. It’s redefining the concept of your association, just like our members have continually redefined their convenience offer to their customers,” said Gleeson.

The 2026 NACS Show features thousands of new products and technology solutions across 445,000 square feet of expo space, 250-plus new exhibitors and more than 50 education sessions. For more information visit www.nacsshow.com.

For 65 years, NACS has been recognized as the premiere association for convenience and fuel retailers. NACS has retail member companies that cumulatively represent more than 400,000 stores in 50-plus countries, including 45,000 stores in the United States. The U.S. convenience store industry, with nearly 152,000 stores nationwide selling fuel, food and merchandise, conducts 160 million transactions daily and had sales of $818 billion in 2025.