Ranglers isn’t a typical convenience-store. CEO Bridgette Haile refers to it as a more of a high-end boutique, with gift items at higher price points than an average c-store and chandeliers hanging in the restrooms.
But the rising costs of building a new store were a huge factor in why Haile and her husband, Ranglers’ COO Brandon Haile, ultimately decided to sell the family business to Fort Worth, Texas-based Yesway, which owns the Yesway and Allsup’s c-store brands.
“My husband has always said, ‘If you’re not building, you’re going to get gobbled up by the competition,’” Bridgette Haile said.
And building kept getting harder. About five years ago, the couple built a new 10,000-square-foot, ranch-style store in Clifton, Texas, and it cost just over $3 million. If they were to build the same store today, it would cost $7 to $8 million, Brandon and Bridgett Haile said, and take about twice as long to complete.
- BW Gas & Convenience Holdings, which owns Yesway, is No. 18 on CSP’s 2023 Top 40 update to the 2022 Top 202 ranking of convenience store chains by store count. Watch for the full 2023 Top 202 in June.
Yesway in February acquired the chain’s five stores, located in Hamilton, Clifton and Hico, Texas. With this acquisition and its latest new-to-industry stores, Yesway’s store count totals 435 c-stores across nine states.
The Ranglers portfolio of well-run, high-volume stores fits perfectly into Yesway’s existing geography, Greg Gardner, managing director at Yesway, told CSP Daily News. The Hailes are excellent operators and have made Ranglers the brand leader in their markets, he said.
“Ranglers stores go beyond the traditional convenience offer, with three of the five sites featuring larger formats and a significantly expanded general merchandise and gift set that is a favorite of customers, and that we will continue to offer,” Gardner said. “With distinctive branding, attractive storefronts and unique fuel canopies, the stores have become a destination for travelers, beyond food and fuel.”
The two smaller-format Ranglers stores do not have a foodservice offer and will be rebranded as Allsup’s, complete with its food platform. The three larger format stores will rebrand as Yesway. Store remodels are anticipated to being in second quarter 2023, Gardner said.
Yesway said it always intends to retain all existing store employees when it makes an acquisition. For Brandon and Bridgette Haile, though, their time in the c-store industry is over.
The keys for other independent operators to survive, Haile said, are: “Having a clean restroom, having friendly employees and offering good products—not just your typical convenience-store items. To branch out and take that chance. Take that chance because you’ll be surprised at what people are willing to spend if you offer a good product, whether it be in the gift section, or your coffee.”
Sometimes carrying the $30 T-shirt or stuffed animal for $11.99 or above pays off, she said.
Brothers Don and Ramon Haile opened the first Ranglers location in 1973. Based in Hamilton, Texas, the company incorporated in 1990 as Ranglers Convenience Stores Inc. Don Haile is Brandon Haile’s father. The stores feature the Ranglers fuel brand.