Dive Brief:
- Yesway appears to be pursuing a sale of its convenience stores in Iowa and Kansas to Midwest c-store retailer MegaSaver, according to employees from 10 different Yesway locations across those states.
- It’s unclear when the deal is set to materialize, although team members from three stores said they’ve been asked to tell customers that their Yesway loyalty points will expire in mid-August. These same employees said that if the deal finalizes, they've been told they would become MegaSaver team members.
- A deal would nearly double Nebraska-based MegaSaver’s c-store count and introduce the company to Kansas while significantly spreading its footprint in Iowa.
Dive Insight:
C-Store Dive first reported in February that Yesway intended to sell all 30 of its convenience stores across Iowa and Kansas by the end of 2025. At the time, a company spokesperson didn’t offer specifics about why Yesway was taking this direction, only noting that its Iowa and Kansas stores didn’t match the company’s strategy.
In a statement to C-Store Dive earlier this week, Yesway’s spokesperson said that the Texas-based retailer “has not yet sold its Iowa and Kansas-based stores.” The spokesperson did not respond to several follow ups about whether a deal with MegaSaver is in the works.
Kamol Samiev, MegaSaver’s vice president, said over the phone that he “can’t deny or confirm” a deal being in the works for Yesway’s Iowa and Kansas c-stores. Meanwhile, Lu Qian, a corporate controller on MegaSaver’s accounting team, said that she “cannot share information at this time” regarding a potential deal.
Back in February, Yesway’s spokesperson said that after selling its stores in Iowa and Kansas, Yesway would reinvest the proceeds into c-stores “that enable us to provide a better customer experience.” That may refer to Yesway’s stores in the Southwest, where it’s invested heavily in recent years and operates the bulk of its locations under the Allsup’s banner.
Founded in 2002, MegaSaver operates most of its stores around Omaha, Nebraska. Acquiring Yesway’s roughly 30 stores in Iowa and Kansas would grow the company’s network from about 42 stores in three states to over 70 locations across four states. Besides Omaha, the retailer has two locations in Iowa near the border of Nebraska and two others in the Fort Lauderdale and Coral Gables areas of Florida.
