DES MOINES, Iowa -- Convenience-store retailer Yesway is making moves to ramp up its fuel offer.
The chain has hired industry vets Darrin Renwick as senior fuel procurement manager and Joe Fandel as manager of fleet and wholesale petroleum sales to lead the fuels team.
Renwick joined Yesway from Pilot Flying J Travel Centers, where he was logistics supervisor and optimizer. He will be responsible for fuel procurement and pricing for Yesway. Fandel is a former fleet-card sales manager from Kum & Go LC. At Yesway he will focus on growing fuel sales and gallons with the chain’s new fleet-card program.
“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 Director of Fuels Joe Petrowski, formerly of Cumberland Farms Gulf Oil. “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.”
The team is banking on establishing high-volume fuel sites at Yesway to drive growth, along with its in-store offer—in particular, foodservice, the company said. Through these two elements, “we should see a significant contribution to site profitability from the over 65% of fuel customers who transact inside our stores after a fuel purchase,” said Petrowski.
The team will focus on key efforts, including:
- Growing the number of Yesway suppliers and sourcing terminals to help trim its procurement costs.
- Implementing real-time pricing.
- Installing inventory-tracking systems to reduce risk and eliminate fuel outages.
- Tapping social media to attract more store traffic and loyalty-card signups.
- Improving traffic flow at Yesway sites.
- Expanding Yesway’s fleet and contract marketing programs.
BW Gas & Convenience, doing business as Yesway, is based in Des Moines, Iowa. BW is a unit of private-equity investment firm Brookwood Financial Partners LLC, Beverly, Mass., which specializes in acquiring and managing value-add commercial real estate and related businesses on behalf of a select group of investors. The chain ranked No. 197 in CSP's2017 Top 202 list of the largest c-store chains in the United States.
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