Yesway Raises $235M of Equity to Accelerate Its Growth

BEVERLY, Mass. — Yesway has completed the private placement of an additional $235 million of equity that will be used to fund an extensive raze-and-rebuild and store remodel campaign across its portfolio.

The capital will also be used to pursue complementary acquisitions to further expand the Yesway/Allsup's brand presence, the company said.

Beverly-based Brookwood Financial Partners LLC, the private equity firm that founded Yesway, was the sole private placement agent for the offering. In total, it has raised more than $642 million in equity capital for its Yesway affiliate in addition to arranging more than $237 million in sale-leaseback proceeds.

"Since founding Yesway approximately five years ago and acquiring the Allsup's Convenience Store chain last November, we have been extremely pleased with our integration efforts and how well the company has performed," said Yesway Chairman and CEO Tom Trkla. "Given this success, we decided to raise additional capital to accelerate our real estate capital programs and to finance additional portfolio acquisitions. In addition, we will likely further de-lever the company's balance sheet by pre-paying a significant amount of our Term Loan B debt.

"As part of our integration of Allsup's, we have identified over $135 million in real estate capital projects within the portfolio, including razing and rebuilding 27 existing Allsup's stores, performing targeted upgrades to over 100 additional Allsup's stores, converting several existing Yesway stores in Texas to the Allsup's brand, significantly upgrading many of our existing Yesway-branded stores and adding new-to-market stores in communities which we have determined could benefit from an Allsup's store," Trkla added. "In particular, these improvements will allow us to offer the complete Allsup's foodservice program to Yesway customers, including, of course, the world-famous Allsup's Burrito." 

Over the past several years, Allsup's has completed more than 100 raze-and-rebuilds of existing c-stores, increasing the store size from an average of 2,400 square feet to over 4,800 square feet, allowing for an expanded selection of in-store merchandise and private label offerings.

In most cases, locations also saw an increase in the number of diesel and gasoline fueling stations. These expansions occurred under the direction of Mark Allsup, son of Allsup's founders Lonnie and Barbara Allsup, the company stated.

"We are also pleased to announce that we recently completed over $7 million in technology upgrades to all Allsup's stores, including the installation of a state-of-the-art PDI back office software system, the migration of all Yesway and Allsup's stores to a consistent point of sale system, and the installation of significant in-store hardware systems and upgrades," Trkla said. "These technological and telecommunications improvements will allow us to dramatically improve our reporting capabilities and repair and maintenance turnaround times, in addition to serving as the platform for our soon-to-be unveiled Allsup's customer loyalty program, which has been modeled after our award-winning Yesway Rewards loyalty offering. All of this was done with the singular goal of making an already-terrific Yesway/Allsup's shopping experience even better."

BW Gas & Convenience Retail LLC dba Yesway is headquartered in Forth Worth, Texas, and operates 402 c-stores in Texas, New Mexico, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Nebraska, including the 304-location Allsup's Convenience Store chain.