BW Gas & Convenience, a portfolio company of Brookwood Financial Partners, will acquire 21 convenience stores from Kum & Go. The acquired stores are all based in Iowa. The first three stores, located in Mason City, are being acquired this week, with the remaining 18 stores to be closed on by the end of August.
With this acquisition, BW Gas & Convenience will own and operate 31 stores in Iowa – it acquired ten western Iowa-based stores from Country Store in 2015 – and has announced that it will brand all of its properties under the name Yesway with corporate headquarters in Des Moines (www.yesway.com). “The launch of Yesway marks the beginning of an exciting new branding venture for BW Gas & Convenience,” said Thomas Nicolas Trkla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Brookwood Financial.
Yesway plans to spend approximately $6.7 million to completely upgrade and remodel its entire portfolio of stores. “The new exterior and interior store design will enhance the overall appeal of the stores and enable us to offer a fresh experience for consumers in the Iowa region,” said Brian Trout, senior vice president of operations for BW Gas & Convenience. “Customers will enjoy redesigned stores that are true to our brand tenets, which are to be user-friendly, inviting and efficient.”
Brookwood Financial formed BW Gas & Convenience to build a portfolio of 300 to 600 gas stations and convenience stores in different regions of the United States. The strategy involves building several regional portfolios of gas stations and convenience stores, each of which will be seeded through the acquisition of an existing portfolio – generally between 10 and 20 stores – that has operational and technological infrastructures already in place. Each portfolio will then be grown over a three-year period through follow-on acquisitions of individual stores or small groups of stores until each region is comprised of approximately 50-100 stations.
Brookwood Financial specializes in acquiring and managing value-add commercial real estate and related operating businesses on behalf of a group of institutional investors, family offices and high net worth individuals. The firm was founded in 1993 and is headquartered north of Boston in Beverly, MA (www.brookwoodfinancial.com).
© 2016 Private Equity Professional • 7-13-16