GoPuff, taking aim at Wawa, debuts in the suburbs

GoPuff, the 24-hour, app-driven online delivery service that aims to take out Wawa, made its first foray into the Philly suburbs this week.

On Wednesday, GoPuff deliveries arrived at homes in Manayunk, Roxborough, and the Main Line for the first time. Before this week, the service - now in 11 cities nationally - had been available in the Philadelphia region only to those who lived or worked in the immediate city.

Making deliveries to the suburbs comes after GoPuff leased a 3,500-square-foot warehouse on 5216 Ridge Ave. last month to house its inventory geared to the 'burbs.

"It went amazingly well," said cofounder Yakir Gola, 23, who developed the GoPuff website with college roommate Rafael Ilishayev, 23, while the two were students at Drexel University. "For the launch, we downloaded our app in the Main Line and Manayunk. We accumulated a list of everyone that ever logged in to our app, and we sent them their first order for free.

"It was a way to tell people we are finally here, and that we know they've tried to use us before, so here's a complimentary delivery," Gola said. "People are loving it. We had a lot of orders yesterday."

GoPuff registered more than 100 deliveries Wednesday, according to Gola.

GoPuff has been described as "a Wawa on wheels," which can deliver whatever you need through most of the day and night, be it ice cream, chips, batteries. GoPuff added beer to its New York City menu last month under two recently launched subsidiaries - GoBeer and GoBooze.

Millennials are the targeted demographic, with 25 to 26 years of age as the average for those using the service.

Gola said it had always been the goal to enter the Roxborough/Manayunk area, given the vast pool of millennials at St. Joseph's University and Villanova.

"Whatever specific product they want out here, we can deliver it," Gola said.

"A lot of times when we launch in new markets, people don't know us at all," he said. "But with Manayunk and the entire Roxborough and Main Line - everyone over there knew about us already because it got so big in Philly. They were waiting for us to launch there."

The company hired an additional 10 people this week. Gola said it plans to hire more people every week to meet what he anticipates will be a growing demand.

On the national front, GoPuff just launched in Portland, Ore., taking its total penetration to 11 markets, including Chicago, New York, and Denver.

In early June, GoPuff got a $5 million cash infusion from the private equity firm Anthos Capital on top of the firm's $3.25 million to launch GoPuff last fall.

The Center City-based service, whose deliveries are executed by a cadre of contracted drivers, plans to enter seven more markets - including Nashville and Minneapolis - by the end of the year, taking its total reach to 18 markets.

It wants to double that by the end of 2017.

With the growing demand for GoPuff, Gola and Ilishayev just moved into their fourth warehouse in the city - a 40,000-square-foot site on Callowhill Street.

The company operates from noon to 4:30 a.m. in most markets and charges a flat $1.95 delivery charge, which is waived for orders over $49, with zero surcharges.

Ilishayev wouldn't give exact sales for the privately held firm but said sales had risen 25 percent to 30 percent each month since the launch. He said May's sales were 10 times what they were in May 2015.

"Our goal is to eliminate the convenience store," Gola said back in June as the start-up's next expansion was underway.

Said Ilishayev: "Our whole thing is to be the most affordable and quickest delivery service - convenience at no added cost."

Gola said the company hoped to get delivery down from 30 minutes or less to 15 minutes or less by mid-2017 - and to remove the delivery charge.

To use the service, visit gopuff.com or download the mobile app, type in your address, and scroll through a wide range of products across 20 categories.

On Thursday, Ilishayev said he and Gola were eyeing Northeast Philly next.

"That's the only place left in the city that's not covered by GoPuff," he said.

sparmley@phillynews.com

215-854-4184@SuzParmley