For nearly six decades, Swiss Farms has been “America’s Drive-Thru Grocer” — a place where local guests could swing by for milk, grab a sandwich between errands or stop for coffee on the way to work, all without leaving their car.
Although Swiss Farms never technically closed its doors, today the company’s website declares that “Delco’s iconic drive-thru market returns,” promising fresh dairy, grab-and-go eats and the corner-store staples that generations of Delaware County residents grew up with.
The message reflects a deliberate effort to reconnect the brand with its roots.
After changing hands over the years, with different leadership teams bringing their own agendas and perspectives to the brand, the 10-store chain went up for sale in 2022. Arsh Pola, founder and CEO of Pola Petroleum and now president and CEO of Swiss Farms, saw an opportunity to put his background in real estate development, gas stations and convenience stores behind an iconic local brand.
Pola’s development strategy has centered on identifying busy corners and underperforming properties, then adding value through renovations and new concepts — an approach he saw as a natural fit for Swiss Farms
“My history with the company started a long time ago when I was a young kid and I first experienced the ease of driving through and getting all my essentials without stepping foot out of the car. It just made sense,” Pola told Convenience Store News. “Years later, in 2022, we saw the stores were up for sale and given that we were already operating within the c-store and gas station industry, it seemed like the right play and a natural fit. We saw an opportunity to add value to the iconic chain through fresh food and gas stations while keeping the nostalgia alive and staying true to the roots.”
But bringing Swiss Farms back under a single ownership structure would take several years.
When Swiss Farms first went up for sale in 2022, Pola made an offer to acquire the stores. The previous owners ultimately declined the offer and instead moved forward with plans to franchise the stores and develop new locations.
About a year later, Pola’s company reached a deal to acquire the development rights for Swiss Farms and serve as the brand’s area representative, working with franchisees and acting as a liaison between the franchisees and franchisor.
That arrangement gave Pola a closer look at the challenges facing the business and led him to bring Chris Gray onto the leadership team as chief operating officer. With 25 years of experience, Gray brought operational and technology expertise to the company’s efforts to modernize the business.
As Pola and Gray evaluated the organization, they saw an opportunity to consolidate the brand under one ownership structure. Several franchisees wanted to exit the business, leading Pola’s company to acquire locations until it had control of all 10 Swiss Farms sites.
With all the locations under their control, Pola then approached the franchisor about an acquisition. The franchisor agreed to the deal, in part because of its distance from Swiss Farms’ core market in Delaware County and its desire to shift its focus closer to home.
“It was important for me to get 100% ownership because I never wanted to risk the brand falling into the same cycle again with management changes every few years,” Pola said. “The dream is to run the stores as corporate-operated locations, innovate and increase the product offering, bring in fresh food, add gas, and build new strategic locations throughout the county, the state and ultimately, the country.”
Preserving the Drive-Thru, Evolving the Brand
Full ownership gives Pola the opportunity to execute a consistent vision for Swiss Farms — one that maintains the elements that have made the brand recognizable for generations while introducing new products, services and store formats.
While preserving Swiss Farms’ iconic drive-thru experience and signature dairy products is a priority, Pola and the team are ready to evolve the assortment and experience surrounding that core drive-thru proposition.
Foodservice is one of the biggest ways Pola plans to put a modern spin on the traditional Swiss Farms model. The company is developing a made-to-order food and beverage program that will include breakfast sandwiches, coffee, stromboli, refreshers, milkshakes and take-home meal options, among other items.
The focus on foodservice also builds on a history of innovation in the category. In 2017, Swiss Farms was recognized by Convenience Store News as the Best New Foodservice Offering of the Year in its annual Foodservice Innovators Awards program.
The company also plans to broaden its grocery and convenience assortment. Rather than trying to replicate the thousands of products found in a traditional supermarket, Pola said Swiss Farms intends to take a curated approach.
“We want to have the top 10 SKUs of every single vertical of a grocery store,” he said. “Whatever the top 10 of every department would be, we plan to have that at Swiss Farms.”
The strategy is designed to give customers access to the essentials without the aggravations of a traditional grocery trip: parking, unloading their children, navigating a large store and spending an hour shopping for a handful of items.
The concept also gives Swiss Farms a way to position its traditional drive-thru against newer grocery services such as curbside pickup. Pola argues that curbside still requires customers to place an order online, drive to the store, navigate a parking lot and wait for an employee to bring the order out.
At Swiss Farms, the process is deliberately simpler: Pull up, give an associate the shopping list and open the trunk.
“Our slogan is ‘Pop the Trunk.’ That’s what we’re known for,” Pola said.
The evolution will extend beyond what customers can buy at the stores, too. Swiss Farms is developing a new mobile app and loyalty program designed to reward customers based on their purchases.
The company also plans to tap into the nostalgia surrounding the brand through merchandise featuring older logos and familiar slogans, creating another way to reconnect its future with its history. T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts and mugs will be available through a planned online merchandise shop, with some merchandise potentially incorporated into the loyalty program.
Building a One-Stop Destination
Even as Swiss Farms expands beyond its traditional format, Pola has no plans to abandon the element that made the brand distinctive in the first place. Instead, the company sees the drive-thru as the foundation for its next chapter, retaining it at every new-build location while adding new ways for customers to shop.
Pola cited a 2023 CivicScience survey finding that 53% of U.S. adults who purchase fast food prefer the drive-thru. That consumer preference reinforces Pola’s belief in a format that has been part of Swiss Farms’ DNA since its inception in 1968.
The company’s twin drive-thru configuration is a key part of that proposition, allowing Swiss Farms to move customers through its lanes quickly. To Pola’s knowledge, Swiss Farms is the only drive-thru, convenience and quick-service restaurant (QSR) concept in the country with a double drive-thru.
“We are the only drive-thru business in the country with double drive-thrus and this twin drive-thru concept is behind the reason we have such an efficient system, and we can get customers in and out of our lanes in less than two minutes,” Pola noted.
That doesn’t mean every future Swiss Farms customer will have to stay behind the wheel. While the drive-thru will remain a core part of every new build, the company plans to introduce a hybrid experience at new locations, giving customers the option to walk in and shop for themselves while retaining the drive-thru for those who prioritize speed and convenience.
“This is something we believe will also drive sales for the company and cater to the different shopping preferences of our customers,” Pola said.
That flexibility is part of a broader vision for Swiss Farms as a one-stop destination. In addition to fresh food and expanded grocery and convenience offerings, the company plans to introduce fuel at new locations, giving customers another reason to make Swiss Farms part of their daily routines.
“The value of adding gas stations to our new locations will be to provide customers with a destination where they can complete an hour’s worth of errands in the matter of minutes,” Pola said.
Looking Ahead
For now, much of the work is focused on the existing legacy stores, including store improvements, new initiatives, and building out the leadership and store-level teams needed to support the next phase of growth.
Pola’s ambitions, however, extend well beyond Swiss Farms’ current 10-store footprint. Over the next five years, he hopes to grow the chain to 25 locations, bringing together elements of c-stores, QSRs, grocery stores and gas stations.
“We hope to be the place you go to buy your groceries for the week, get your tank filled up and get your family dinner all in one swoop,” Pola said.
The ambition is significant, but he said the company intends to grow deliberately, keeping the needs of its customers and the communities it serves at the center of the strategy.
“We want to do this the right way, organically and with conviction, keeping the customers’ needs and wants as the most paramount piece of our business,” Pola said. “Swiss Farms is back and we are just getting started.”
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