Yesway is planning to divest its Iowa and Kansas stores by the end of 2025.
The company shared with CStore Decisions that it is divesting stores that no longer match its strategy and reinvesting the proceeds in locations that enable the chain to provide a better customer experience.
Yesway has been focusing its growth efforts of late on expanding its Allsup’s brand in the Southwest. Most recently, the chain announced in January that it was opening five new Allsup’s locations in Texas and New Mexico. In October, the chain announced it had added eight new Allsup’s locations to its portfolio in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma over the past six months, with plans for more locations in the area by the end of 2024.
“We plan to continue our growth and are focused on building the best network of store locations to meet the needs of our valued customers,” a company spokesperson said.
The Iowa and Kansas stores are not expected to close, as they will be transitioning to new owners by the end of the year. Yesway’s website lists 18 locations in Iowa and four in Kansas.
“We want to thank everyone for the opportunity to serve your communities; our team members who have served you — we appreciate and value everyone’s contributions, and, we invite you to visit any of our other Yesway and Allsup’s locations,” a company spokesperson said.
Early Days
Yesway’s c-store journey began in the state of Iowa. Then known by the name BW Gas & Convenience Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Brookwood Financial Partners LLC, the company arrived on the scene in 2015 and soon after acquired a 10-store gas station and convenience store portfolio in western Iowa as its very first acquisition. In July 2016, it further expanded in Iowa with the acquisition of acquisition of 21 convenience stores from Kum & Go L.C.
“Coincident with this acquisition, BW Gas & Convenience is proud to unveil its national convenience store brand, Yesway. Headquartered in Des Moines, Yesway will offer an expanded product assortment, enhanced food service offering and terrific, neighborly customer service,” the company announced at the time.
After growing to 30 stores in Iowa, in March 2017, Yesway entered the state of Kansas via the acquisition of five Pic Quik stores in Hutchinson, Kan. The chain continued its growth trajectory from there, expanding into new states.
In 2019, Yesway announced the purchase of 300 Allsup’s convenience stores in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, tripling its store count overnight. In August 2020, the chain moved its headquarters to Fort Worth, Texas.
Today, Yesway operates more than 400 stores across Texas, New Mexico, South Dakota, Missouri, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Nebraska, with the majority of its stores flying the Allsup’s banner in the Southwest. Yesway is known for its leading foodservice offerings, including Allsup’s famous deep-fried burrito.
