Yesway Assembles Team to Focus on Fuel Initiatives

DES MOINES, Iowa — Under the direction of 40-year fuel industry veteran Joe Petrowski, Yesway continues to add to its fuel team to improve its offer.

Recently, the Midwest convenience store and gas station operator introduced Darrin Renwick as senior fuel procurement manager and Joe Fandel as fleet and wholesale petroleum sales manager.

As senior fuel procurement manager, Renwick is responsible for all fuel procurement and pricing. He most recently served as logistics supervisor/optimizer for Pilot Flying J and graduated cum laude from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Supply Chain Logistics.

In his role as fleet and wholesale petroleum manager, Fandel is responsible for increasing fuel sales and driving profitable gallons to Yesway stores primarily through the implementation of the c-store retailer’s newly launched fleet card program. He will report directly to Renwick.

Prior to joining Yesway, Fandel served as fleet card sales manager at Kum & Go LC and graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Liberal Sciences degree.

"I believe that our team of experienced professionals and analysts will be able to achieve Yesway's long-term goal to be the fuel destination of choice in our respective market areas," said Petrowski. "Our aim is to be a great chain retailer. To accomplish this, we need to continue to increase both our weekly gallons sold and individual transactions from drive-by traffic, and from our fleet and loyalty destination customers. 

"Not only will high volume fuel sites drive our growth, but with Yesway's exceptional in-store offerings, including our expanded food service products, we should see a significant contribution to site profitability from the over 65 percent of fuel customers who transact inside our stores after a fuel purchase," he added.

Petrowski is the former CEO of the Cumberland Farms Gulf Oil Group. He joined Yesway in 2016 as a senior advisor to Yesway Chairman and CEO Thomas Trkla, and is a member of the company’s executive and investments committees. For the last two years, Petrowski has worked closely with Yesway's senior executives to implement the firm's strategic vision, refine and inform its business plan, and manage the firm’s rapid growth. Last year, he officially assumed the role of Director of Fuels. 

"I look forward to guiding Darrin and Joe and the rest of our team to deliver on all aspects of an outstanding fuel marketing effort, including expanding the number of suppliers and sourcing terminals to lower our procurement costs; implementing competitive, real-time pricing; putting in place state-of-the-art inventory tracking systems to reduce risk and eliminate outages; using social media to drive additional traffic and loyalty card purchases; making targeted site modifications to improve customer flow; and greatly expanding our fleet and contract marketing programs," Petrowski said.

According to Trkla, Petrowski is a "driving force" behind the evolution of the c-store and fuel retail industry and he could not be more pleased Petrowski is now leading all fuel initiatives for the company.

"As we continue to grow our portfolio, Joe's proven track record, decades of experience, and depth and breadth of industry connections are proving invaluable to our exceptional management and operations teams and to me. We are extremely fortunate to have Joe as an integral part of a senior management team dedicated to building a c-store chain that strives to deliver terrific customer service to everyone who visits any of our stores," Trkla commented.

Yesway's expanding portfolio currently consists of 88 c-stores located in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.

"Our pipeline of portfolio and individual store acquisitions remains robust," said Trkla. "We currently have an additional 57 stores under contract to acquire over the next several months and feel very confident that we can acquire an additional 120-130 stores per year over the next three years in order to reach our goal of becoming a 500-plus c-store company."

BW Gas & Convenience, d/b/a Yesway, is headquartered in Des Moines.