WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- The acquisition of 35 convenience stores in Texas signaled the first of four new states retailer Yesway intends to enter. After recently expanding within Iowa and into Kansas, Yesway is getting set to grow further and will add not only Texas, but also Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, to its geographic footprint, the company said.
Yesway said it plans to acquire, improve and rebrand 500 convenience stores in selected regions of the United States over the next several years. The retailer also said it expects to employ more than 1,000 people by the second quarter of this year with the additional stores it will soon have under management in those states.
To help lead that expansion effort, BW Gas & Convenience Holdings LLC, doing business as Yesway, has hired Jamie Hatch as vice president of construction and maintenance.
Along with his primary responsibilities, Hatch will provide expertise and oversight to the firm's remodeling, construction and facility upkeep projects. He will also assemble and oversee teams of local building contractors across the firm's expanded Midwest region.
"Our value-add strategy in the convenience-store space is founded on our ability to improve and reposition our assets within their respective markets," said Brian Trout, Yesway's senior vice president of operations. "Jamie brings decades of industry experience and expertise to the table. We are very excited to have someone with his construction management and capital planning background joining the Yesway team."
Prior to joining Yesway, Hatch was president of Commercial and Home Services, Waukee, Iowa, where he managed all aspects of commercial and residential projects. He also oversaw the remodeling of more than 100 Kum & Go convenience stores throughout the Midwest. Prior to this, he was a project manager and estimator with Allied Construction, Des Moines, Iowa.
BW Gas & Holdings acquired 21 stores from Kum & Go LC in July 2016. Yesway began to build its c-store network with the acquisition of 10 Country Store locations in December 2015.
Hatch will report to Trout and will work out of the company's West Des Moines, Iowa, headquarters.
BW Gas & Convenience Holdings is a unit of private-equity investment firm Brookwood Financial Partners LC, Beverly, Mass., which specializes in acquiring and managing value-add commercial real estate and related businesses on behalf of a select group of investors. Since its founding in 1993, Brookwood has raised more than $884 million of equity to acquire a portfolio of 185 commercial properties, seven operating companies and 38 gas stations and convenience stores, which have a realized and unrealized value in excess of $2.4 billion, it said.
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