Yesway Raises $190M for New Convenience Store Construction
FORT WORTH, Texas — BW Gas & Convenience Holdings LLC dba Yesway raised $190 million in new equity during the second half of 2022 to continue funding a new store construction program.
The majority of the structured equity comes from global investment firm HPS Investment Partners, which has $95 billion of assets under management.
"We are tremendously excited to announce our new partnership with HPS," said Tom Trkla, chairman and CEO of Yesway. "We are deeply appreciative of the collaborative and accommodating nature of our discussions with HPS that showed a keen understanding of our business and are impressed by the talent of their investment team."
Over the past year, Yesway launched an aggressive campaign to grow its store count and financial performance through the completion of both new stores and raze-and-rebuild projects across its portfolio and geographic footprint. In 2022, Yesway completed the construction of 17 new stores and 21 raze-and-rebuild projects at an industry-leading annual return on invested capital, according to the company.
Based on the success of its completed projects to date, Yesway plans to build 28 additional new convenience stores in 2023, most of which will be funded using the proceeds of the newly raised equity.
Yesway was founded in 2015 by Brookwood Financial Partners. Since Yesway's inception, Brookwood has raised approximately $825 million in equity to effect Yesway's growth strategy.
The company's expansion journey in 2022 included the acquisition of the nine-store Tres Amigos chain in Texas and the growth milestone of 425 c-stores upon opening three new Allsup's stores, also in Texas, as Convenience Store News previously reported.
Fort Worth-based Yesway's c-store portfolio includes 428 c-stores in Texas, New Mexico, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Nebraska. It operates primarily under the Yesway and Allsup's brands, with sites that are differentiated through its foodservice offering, featuring Allsup's deep-fried burrito, and a wide variety of high-quality grocery items and private-label products.