Dive Brief:
- Yesway intends to sell all 30 of its convenience stores across Iowa and Kansas by the end of 2025, a company spokesperson confirmed to C-Store Dive on Monday.
- The spokesperson didn’t offer specifics about why Yesway is taking this direction, only noting that its Iowa and Kansas stores don’t match the company’s strategy. The spokesperson added that Yesway intends to reinvest the proceeds from the sales into c-stores “that enable us to provide a better customer experience.”
- Yesway’s looming exit from Iowa and Kansas comes as the c-store retailer continues to focus on expanding in the Southwest, mainly through its Allsup’s banner.
Dive Insight:
Yesway’s spokesperson said on Monday that the company is “focused on building the best network of store locations to meet the needs of our valued customers.” They did not respond by press time when asked if any of the company’s 30 stores across Iowa and Kansas have already been sold.
“As these stores in Iowa and Kansas transition to new owners, we do not anticipate there will be closures,” Yesway’s spokesperson said.
Iowa has played a significant role in Yesway’s growth over the past decade. In July 2016, Massachusetts-based private equity firm Brookwood Financial Partners acquired 21 c-stores in Iowa through its retail arm, BW Gas & Convenience, which had less than 70 locations in its network at the time. Soon after that, BW rebranded itself as Yesway and outlined plans to acquire hundreds more c-stores over the coming years. It now operates more than 400 locations across nine states under its two banners.
Yesway even made Des Moines its headquarters in 2016, then moved to Fort Worth, Texas after its 2019 acquisition of Allsup’s.
Within a year after Yesway’s arrival and move to Des Moines, the company entered Kansas after acquiring 12 c-stores through two separate deals. By the end of 2017, Yesway seemed intent on becoming a regional threat in the Midwest.
But since Yesway acquired Allsup’s 304 convenience stores across Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, the company has put significantly more emphasis on growing in the Southwest than in the Midwest or elsewhere. As of today, Allsup’s stores across those three Southwestern states represent nearly 90% of Yesway’s c-store network, according to the company’s website. Meanwhile, Yesway only has a combined 57 locations across Iowa, Kansas, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota and Missouri.
