Yesway Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Yesway (NASDAQ:YSWY) reported third-quarter financial results on Thursday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.

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Summary

Yesway, Inc. reported strong third-quarter 2026 results with a 1.9% increase in same-store inside merchandise sales and a 1.1% increase in same-store fuel gallons sold, marking its fifth consecutive quarter of growth.

Adjusted EBITDA rose 8.6% to $60 million, driven by higher fuel margins and strong performance in merchandise sales, despite elevated fuel prices and inflationary pressures.

The company reaffirmed its full-year 2026 outlook, with expectations for adjusted EBITDA between $235 million and $245 million and plans for 6 to 8 new store openings by the end of the year.

Yesway continued its strategic expansion into Arizona, opening two new stores and planning further development, while converting 24 Texas Yesway stores to the Allsup’s brand to leverage strong local recognition.

Management expressed confidence in maintaining momentum through disciplined capital allocation, focusing on high-return store developments, strategic M&A opportunities, and enhancing operational efficiencies.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Welcome to the Yesway, Inc. third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker’s presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you will need to press star 1-1. Please be advised today’s conference call is being recorded. I would like to turn the call over to Russ Pfeiffer, Vice President of Financial Planning. Please go ahead.

Russ Pfeiffer (Vice President of Financial Planning)

Thank you, operator. On today’s call are Thomas N. Trkla, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Ericka L. Ayles, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, a reminder that today’s discussion will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other securities laws. Any forward-looking statements made today are based on management’s current expectations, assumptions and beliefs about our business and the environment in which we operate. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from what is expressed or implied.

These risks include, but are not limited to, volatility in global oil supplies and prices, general economic conditions, our ability to execute our growth strategy, and changes in consumer demand and fuel consumption trends. For more detailed discussion of risks, please see our final prospectus dated April 21, 2026 as filed with the SEC on April 23, 2026 and our other filings with the SEC. Our forward-looking statements made on this call represent our outlook as of today, November 12, 2026, and we disclaim any obligation to update these statements except as may be required by law.

In addition, during this conference call we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and store contribution. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in our third quarter 2026 earnings press release which was issued earlier this morning and is available on the Investor Relations section of our website. A replay of today’s call will also be available on the same website shortly after we conclude the Q&A session, and with that, I’d like to turn the call over to Tom Trkla.

Thomas N Trkla (See Remarks)

Good morning and thank you for joining us. Yesway delivered another exceptional quarter, building on our strong performance in the first half of 2026. I want to begin by thanking the many thousands of employees across Yesway and Allsup’s whose hard work and dedication make these results possible. Their commitment to our customers, our communities and one another is at the heart of our success and I’m deeply grateful for all that they do. Our continued momentum reflects our deliberate geographic focus, differentiated fuel offerings, significant diesel exposure, destination food service platform and disciplined operating execution. Together, these strengths help us deepen customer loyalty and attract new customers, supporting continued growth in fuel volumes, inside merchandise sales and market share. Our third quarter results demonstrate that progress. Same-store inside merchandise sales increased 1.9% year over year, marking our 19th quarter of growth in the past 20 quarters.

Same-store fuel gallons sold increased 1.1% year over year, our fifth consecutive quarter of growth, and once again, according to OPIS data, outperformed volume trends in our core markets. Total fuel margin cents per gallon increased 14.3% year over year to 46.1 cents, remaining well above historical levels. Adjusted EBITDA increased 8.6% to $60 million. We achieved these results in a challenging consumer environment marked by elevated fuel prices and continued inflationary pressure.

While we remain mindful of the headwinds facing our customers, the resilience of our business gives us confidence in reiterating our full year outlook. Our growth strategy remains focused on three new store development initiatives that strengthen our existing operations and selective acquisitions. Across each, we are committed to allocating capital where we believe it can generate the greatest long-term value, beginning with new store development. We have now built 95 stores since 2020 through our new-to-industry development and raze-and-rebuild programs. We believe that experience, combined with our real estate expertise, helps us identify the markets, sites and store formats with the greatest potential to generate attractive store-level returns.

In the third quarter we opened two new stores, including our first location in Arizona. In October we opened our second Arizona store, bringing our total year-to-date new store openings to five. Our entry into Arizona is an important milestone as we extend our operating model into attractive adjacent markets. We are encouraged by the initial customer response, which supports our belief that our food service and fuel offerings are well suited to the state’s rural and suburban communities.

Arizona remains a key development priority and we continue to advance a pipeline of new locations in the state. As we expand into new markets, we are also focused on strengthening our position in the markets we already serve. Yesway and Allsup’s are strong complementary brands, each with deep roots in the communities we serve. In Texas, Allsup’s has earned an enduring following across generations of customers. We are in the process of converting our 24 Yesway stores in Texas to the Allsup’s brand. We believe these conversions will allow us to build on Allsup’s strong local recognition and customer loyalty while bringing greater consistency to our operations across the state.

We expect to complete the conversions by the end of Q1 2027. We remain committed to our two-brand strategy and plan to continue operating our other 26 Yesway stores. Turning to our existing operations, our teams continue to find practical ways to improve how we run the business. Our efficient store layouts and labor model remain important strengths, and we are advancing initiatives that support faster, more informed decisions across fuel pricing, staffing and merchandising, including pump health and performance monitoring and ongoing SKU rationalization and optimization.

Foodservice remains one of our most important traffic drivers and competitive differentiators. The iconic Allsup’s burrito is the cornerstone of that offering, with 24 million sold annually. Its enduring popularity reflects the connection customers have with Allsup’s and the loyalty our teams have helped build over many years. Our approach to foodservice innovation remains disciplined. We are focused on extending the strength of our offering with products that resonate with customers and offer real value while preserving the efficient labor model that is an important advantage for our stores.

The third component of our growth strategy is selective value-accretive M&A. We continue to strengthen our team and build a pipeline of opportunities, positioning us to act when we identify transactions that meet our strategic and financial objectives. Disciplined capital allocation supports each of these priorities. During the quarter we completed the sale of our Iowa and Kansas stores, enabling us to redeploy capital towards opportunities we believe offer higher returns, including continued new store developments in our core markets.

Strong fuel margins have also supported significant cash generation, giving us greater financial flexibility to pursue organic growth and selective acquisitions while maintaining our strong balance sheet. Overall, this third quarter provides further evidence of the strength and resilience of our business. We are growing inside merchandise sales and fuel gallons, benefiting from our differentiated diesel exposure and concentrating our investment in the markets where we see the greatest potential. We are proud of what our team has accomplished and recognize that continued success requires us to earn our customers’ loyalty every day. Our focus remains on serving them well, supporting our employees and executing consistently to create lasting value for our shareholders.

With that, I will turn the call over to Erica for a more detailed review of our third quarter results and full year financial outlook.

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Thanks, Tom, and good morning, everyone. We delivered another solid quarter with continued same-store growth across inside merchandise and fuel gallons, as well as fuel profitability and adjusted EBITDA. Starting with inside merchandise, inside merchandise sales increased to a record $246 million, representing growth of 4% year over year, or 1.9% on a same-store basis. On a two-year stacked basis, same-store inside merchandise sales increased 3.5%, demonstrating the consistency of our performance even in a challenging consumer environment. Results benefited from strong performance over the Labor Day holiday and favorable weather during the quarter, particularly in September.

Basket growth remained positive during the quarter, and despite elevated fuel prices, we have not seen a meaningful impact on merchandise spending or evidence of significant consumer trade-down. According to Nielsen data, we continue to gain share in both merchandise sales and units, reinforcing the strength of our value proposition and customer loyalty. We maintained healthy inside margins during the quarter, with total inside merchandise margin of 35.1%, broadly consistent with 35.2% in the prior year. The benefit from our pricing actions was offset by higher diesel surcharges during the quarter, the majority of which ended in early October.

Turning to fuel, sales were $713 million, up 51.6% year over year. Fuel margin was 46.1 cents per gallon compared with 40.3 cents per gallon in the third quarter last year. This increase in margin was supported by our structural advantages in diesel and the benefits of elevated fuel price volatility during the quarter. Gasoline volatility was relatively stable through much of the quarter, while diesel volatility picked up in September before moderating slightly in October.

Despite the recent moderation, our significant diesel exposure continues to support attractive fuel margin economics. Same-store fuel gallons sold increased 1.1% year over year despite elevated retail prices. Importantly, this represents 3.8% growth on a two-year stack, demonstrating the consistency of our fuel gallons sold performance. We believe our gallon performance this quarter is a testament to both the attractiveness of our customer base and the success of our investments in fuel capacity and pump performance across the existing store base. We continue to upgrade dispensers and add capacity where demand supports it.

These investments are designed to support market share gains and attractive returns over time. Our deliberate focus on diesel remains an important part of that positioning. Diesel continues to represent 38% of total fuel volumes compared with the max average of 27%. Our diesel mix is meaningfully higher than that of many traditional convenience retailers, reflecting our rural and suburban footprint and presence along commercial and regional transportation routes, and our intentional focus on increasing diesel gallons across our footprint.

Our focus on the diesel platform also benefits inside merchandise sales, as fleet drivers purchase more than three times as much inside the store on average as our typical loyalty customer. We achieved total same-store fuel and inside merchandise gross profit growth of 7.9% year over year, with same-store fuel gross profit and same-store inside merchandise gross profit increasing 16.4% and 1.4%, respectively, from the prior year. We remained focused on managing store-level expenses. Same-store operating expenses increased 8.9% year over year, primarily driven by credit card fees, which accounted for approximately 56% of this increase.

More broadly, we continue to focus on disciplined store-level execution, maintaining high operating standards while delivering a strong customer experience. Through standardized processes, employee training, and technology investments, we have enhanced labor productivity across our store base, enabling select locations to operate with a single employee during non-peak hours. As a result, same-store labor hours declined 1.3% in the third quarter, marking the sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement.

We are pleased with the efficiencies we have achieved to date and expect labor hours to remain relatively stable going forward. Store contribution was $77 million, up 9.2% year over year. The increase was primarily driven by higher same-store contribution from stronger fuel margin and inside merchandise margin, along with incremental contribution from new stores. Net income was $25 million compared with $16 million in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA increased 8.6% year over year to $60 million, reflecting similar drivers as store contribution. As Tom mentioned, this strong performance gives us confidence in achieving the full-year outlook, which I will touch on shortly.

We ended the quarter with 423 stores following the opening of two new locations and the sale of 29 stores in Iowa and Kansas. As Tom highlighted, the divestiture unlocks capital that can be redeployed toward higher-return opportunities, including the development of new-to-industry stores in our core markets. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $105 million and approximately $150 million of borrowing capacity available under the revolver, of which $3 million is committed to undrawn letters of credit, providing us with total available liquidity of $252 million. Total debt, including financing obligations and financing lease obligations at the end of Q3, was $608 million. Net cash provided by operating activities was $66 million compared with $54 million in the prior year.

Capital expenditures totaled approximately $37 million compared with $11 million in the prior year. As we’ve discussed, in 2026 we deliberately prioritized strengthening the balance sheet and have now fully repaid our revolver. Turning to our outlook, our full-year expectations reflect our strong year-to-date performance and current expectations for the remainder of the year. We are reaffirming our 2026 outlook across all measures: adjusted EBITDA of $235 million to $245 million; same-store inside merchandise sales growth of 1.25% to 3.25%; capital expenditures of $85 million to $95 million; new store openings of six to eight stores in 2026.

With respect to fuel margin, while we do not provide a forecast given the inherent volatility in fuel markets, our adjusted EBITDA outlook assumes fourth-quarter fuel margin normalizes to levels we saw prior to the developments in the Middle East. To the extent fuel margins remain above that level, it could provide potential upside to our current outlook. As we look to the fourth quarter, our expectations remain consistent with those entering the year. This includes a comp against a particularly strong fourth quarter last year, which was driven by favorable weather, early benefits from our pricing actions, and strong fuel gallon growth from our fuel expansions and dispenser upgrades. It is also important to note the typical seasonal decline we see in the fourth quarter. That said, we remain encouraged by the underlying trends in the business and the momentum we have carried through October, reinforcing our confidence in achieving our outlook and finishing the year strong.

Overall, we are pleased with our performance through the first nine months of 2026 and remain confident in the significant growth opportunity ahead. For Yesway, we continue to generate strong cash flow, invest strategically in the business, and maintain the financial flexibility to capitalize on opportunities that we believe will drive sustainable growth and long-term shareholder value. And with that, I’ll turn the call back over to Tom for closing remarks.

Thomas N Trkla (See Remarks)

Thank you very much, Erica. To close, we are excited to report another quarter of solid performance, reinforcing the momentum in our business. We remain focused on executing our strategy, investing in attractive growth opportunities across our core markets, and continuing to strengthen the Yesway platform. We believe these priorities position us well to deliver profitable growth and long-term value for our shareholders. Thank you again for joining us today.

OPERATOR

Thank you. As a reminder, if you’d like to ask a question, please press star 11. If your question has been answered and you’d like to remove yourself from the queue, press star 11. Again, our first question comes from Bobby Griffin with Raymond James. Your line is open.

Bobby Griffin (Analyst at Raymond James)

Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the questions, and congrats on a good quarter. First, I just wanted to ask on the five stores that you’ve opened so far in ’26, how are those ramping up compared to the build class? I guess in ’25 are we still seeing the very strong rapid ramp-up in those in new markets of Arizona and New Mexico?

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Good morning, Bobby, this is Erica. Good question. We are seeing similar trends to the builds that we’ve opened in 2026 that we have seen with our previous new builds, so nice, quick ramp. So we’re very pleased with the performance of those assets.

Bobby Griffin (Analyst at Raymond James)

Okay, thank you. And then maybe Tom, for you, I think last time we talked we were talking a little bit about SKU rationalization and maybe even some menu innovation kind of on the works within the Yesway—I mean, within the Allsup’s concept. Any update there on how that’s progressed and what that looks like going into ’27?

Thomas N Trkla (See Remarks)

Sure. Thank you, Bobby. It’s going very well. We expect to complete our food service by year end. That’s basically cutting back on things that aren’t our top sellers and becoming more efficient. And that’s going very, very well. We are knee-deep right now in the merchandising SKUs rationalization, and that’s also part and parcel of how we’re looking at that with regard to our smaller format stores, which we’ve talked about as well. So we should have SKU rationalization done by year end on our food service platform.

And like I said, we’re making great headway right now with regard to SKU rationalization on merch within the stores.

Bobby Griffin (Analyst at Raymond James)

Thank you. I appreciate the details. I’ll jump back in the queue. Best of luck here in 4Q.

Thomas N Trkla (See Remarks)

Thanks, Bobby. Appreciate it.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from Kelly Banya with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Kelly Banya (Analyst at BMO Capital Markets)

Good morning. Thanks for taking our questions. Tom or Erica, I was wondering if you could just talk a little bit more about the consumer behavior. I think you mentioned no meaningful impact really from the elevated fuel environment or evidence of trade-down and momentum through October. But can you just add any more color on category trends inside the store, as well as the driver of the in-store merchandise gross margin and how that played out relative to your expectations?

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Sure, and good morning. This is Erica. Happy to field that question. As far as categories, there’s three categories in particular that were strong performers in the quarter: packaged beverage, which has been a strong performer for us all year—I do call out some great performance in carbonated, energy, and sports drinks; general merchandise, which has really been driven by some resets in the store and some of the product selections that the team have brought in being higher price points, which has flown to the bottom line, which has been great; and then the third category being candy and snacks—namely, candy in the quarter was particularly strong.

As far as margin, I think I mentioned in the remarks earlier we did have some excess fuel charges hit margin in the quarter. Almost all of those have stopped in October, which has been great to see, so that was a slight impact there as well. And then I think, as I mentioned, the incremental baskets has grown in the quarter, so the majority of that increase on the top line driven by an increase in sales per unit.

Kelly Banya (Analyst at BMO Capital Markets)

Okay, thank you. And not sure if you can comment on this yet ahead of kind of more guidance for 2027, but just any color that you can share on how that pipeline of stores and the cadence of openings is shaping up for 2027. Any comment on first half, second half weighting and just how you feel about that pipeline?

Thomas N Trkla (See Remarks)

Sure. Thank you, Kelly. We feel very good about, as we said, Ericka reconfirmed our guidance for this year’s six to eight. We feel very good about that. And as we’ve talked before, with the excess cash we’re looking at ramping up land that we can build on future stores. And so we feel very good about the 130 and reconfirmed that guidance as well. We expect to give guidance on 2027 builds in our next earnings call. But it’s too premature right now.

But I can reaffirm that we feel very good about 130 stores in our model.

Kelly Banya (Analyst at BMO Capital Markets)

Thanks, Tom.

Thomas N Trkla (See Remarks)

Thanks, Kelly.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from Tom Palmer with JP Morgan. Your line is open.

Tom Palmer (Analyst at JP Morgan)

Good morning and thanks for the question. I wanted to maybe just clarify a comment earlier on the diesel surcharges just to make sure I understood kind of how this flowed through. When we look at the third quarter and kind of the step down in inside margin is the diesel surcharge, is that what that’s referring to? And if that’s right, is the idea that we should see maybe more of a rebound in margin, more to first half levels as we look forward.

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Thanks for the question and an opportunity to clarify. You are correct. The, the fuel surcharges did hit in Q3 in particular, as I mentioned, the majority of those have stopped in October. So if that continues, you could expect that to be a positive impact on margin for the fourth quarter.

Tom Palmer (Analyst at JP Morgan)

Okay, thank you for that. And then I apologize if I missed this. I was trying to scan the live transcript too. The assumption that fuel normalizes in the quarter, what does the quarter to date look like?

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Sure. Yeah. So we’re not, we certainly don’t want to get into reporting on a monthly basis. But what we are seeing is volatility for diesel that certainly picked up in September and then moderated slightly in October but still remain at elevated levels in October.

Tom Palmer (Analyst at JP Morgan)

Understood. Thank you.

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

So we are. Yeah. The guidance that we put out, it does anticipate for the fourth quarter a revitalization back to pre-conflict levels. So again, to the extent that these, you know, elevated margins continue, that would be an upside to the fourth quarter.

Tom Palmer (Analyst at JP Morgan)

Okay, thank you.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from Simeon Gutman with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Simeon Gutman (Analyst at Morgan Stanley)

Hey, Tom. Hey, Ericka. My first question. Ericka, morning. You touched on this a bit. Is the customer making a trade-off on inside sales given some of the higher prices that they’re paying outside? It doesn’t look like it is. But curious if there’s part of the basket or an item that they may be, I don’t know, trading down or opting for or economizing.

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Good question. We’re actually not seeing any trading down in the stores. So unlike previous periods where we have seen a trade down slightly in national brands to maybe more private label, we’re not actually seeing any meaningful product shift in the portfolio, which has been really great to see. We’ve even looked at has there been trade downs in packs to singles as we think about even the beer category in 12-packs to 6-packs and we’re just not seeing that. So we feel very good about the resiliency of our customer in particular as well as the unit gains that we’ve been able to see from Nielsen data in our geography.

Simeon Gutman (Analyst at Morgan Stanley)

Thanks for that. Then a follow up is on CPG. You mentioned some moderation into the fourth quarter. If you think about past Q4 and into 27, do we give back we earned last year. Industry normalizes at a higher level. Or could industry even normalize at even a higher level than where we were? Call it pre the crude spike.

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Sure. Good question. Specific to Yesway. Typically, if you look historically at our Q4, we have generally slightly lower fuel margin in the fourth quarter, which is, you know, comes with the seasonality of our business. That being said, Q4 of 25 I believe was about a 44.3, which was incredibly strong, you know, for a fourth quarter number. That being said, as you’re aware, we continue to invest capital in areas that continue to shore up our structural differentiated platform as it relates to diesel.

So throughout this time of the conflict, we’ve been taking action to maintain as much of that margin as possible. Again, that being said, we do expect some level of renormalization.

Simeon Gutman (Analyst at Morgan Stanley)

Thanks. Good luck.

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Thank you.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from Bonnie Herzog with Goldman Sachs. The line is open.

Bonnie Herzog (Analyst at Goldman Sachs)

All right, thank you. I just had first maybe a quick follow-up question on inside sales. You did maintain your same-store merchandise guidance, but that does imply a pretty wide range for Q4. So just trying to get a sense of that and maybe what’s a realistic expectation?

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, I think it’s a great question and a fair question. Our guidance is again just on an annual basis and we didn’t see any meaningful shifts in activity to warrant any change to that annual guidance. What I will say is we are seeing that Q3 momentum so far flow into the fourth quarter. So what I would say is the implied guidance for Q4 is consistent with our expectations coming into the year. So there are no new concerns on the consumer. There are also, you know, we’re certainly not, you know, expecting any significant increase in that expectation.

So, you know, I would say nothing out of the ordinary that we’re expecting for the fourth quarter, if that helps.

Bonnie Herzog (Analyst at Goldman Sachs)

No, it does. Thanks for the clarification on that. And then I did want to ask about M&A and the environment. You know, Tom, you did mention last quarter that you’re more actively pursuing M&A given of course your strong performance and the flexibility you have. So just curious if you could talk about maybe how multiples have been trending recently. How many deals are coming across your desk and ultimately what size deals you’re looking at? A broader M&A question, but any color would be helpful, thank you.

Thomas N Trkla (See Remarks)

Sure. We’ve seen a few larger deals and a few midsize deals. We haven’t got to the point yet where we’ve offered to actually see what our multiple trades at. And I think the industry is there as well to see what those deals trade at. Our focus has been on the smaller operators we’ve talked about right now and we’ve geared up internally in terms of adding people and adding focus in the four states in which we’re primarily operating. We continue to believe that the smaller operator environment is more fragmented with more pressures on them.

So we see better opportunities there to buy better multiples that we can synergize to multiples that are similar to the returns we’re getting on our new builds. And so I feel very good about the ramp up right now. When we have something to announce, we obviously will. But I think the environment right now for larger deals is in flux, as you know as well as I do, in terms of some of the biggest things that are out there, some of the larger things that aren’t trading right now, some of the pressures on interest rates and some of those bigger deals. We of course as well, and I should mention this, are really focusing, especially after the sale of Iowa and Kansas, on our four state region. Okay. So we’re very geographically focused right now on Oklahoma, Arizona, Texas and New Mexico, we are seeing transactions in those states.

But I should say the most important takeaway from our M&A activity is we’re focusing on the smaller portfolios and the single store operators because we think there’s a better opportunity to buy those. And I also think there’s more of them coming because the pressure on the small operator.

Bonnie Herzog (Analyst at Goldman Sachs)

All right, thank you. I’ll pass it on.

Thomas N Trkla (See Remarks)

Thanks, Bonnie.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from Brad Thomas with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Brad Thomas (Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets)

Good morning. Nice quarter. I wanted to ask about the— You’re welcome, Tom. I want to ask about the fuel gallons. Another really encouraging quarter for you all here of growing gallons. I guess. Can you talk a little bit about what you’re seeing where you maybe think you’re picking up share and then maybe of late what you’re seeing competitively from those across the street from you as oil prices have come down over the last week or so here are you seeing those folks across the street that have been maybe losing to you being more aggressive to get back customers?

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Good questions. We are very proud of our gallon growth in the quarter and in 2026 in general. So a good portion of that gain and share that we see in Opus across our portfolio. Certainly the capital allocation that we’ve been very thoughtful has putting into this diesel platform as well as what we sort of think about as our pump health, so dispenser upgrades, making sure speed of transaction is there for our customers, we think is really continuing to pay off.

Obviously we talk quite a bit about that diesel customer, so that has certainly remained. But as the prices have come down more recently, we do see many competitors coming down. We think at it as sort of in an organized way, you know, making sure that the customer is getting, you know, that benefit. So, you know, I think folks are acting rationally in light of the consumer and their needs.

Brad Thomas (Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets)

That’s great. And then maybe if I could ask a follow up on fuel margins, you know, I think we’re all doing our best to guess at what 2027 holds. But if we just look at what Yesway has done structurally, can you maybe speak to some of the benefits that you’ve been getting from the diesel mix and the store portfolio, you know, enhancements that you’ve done and how much you all have been able to sort of raise the fuel margin floor on your own beyond the environment being better?

Thomas N Trkla (See Remarks)

Let me take the first part of that and Ericka can fill in. Our biggest differentiator, we’ve talked about a lot on these calls, has been our deliberate and strong move into diesel. We’re now about 38% and as we’ve talked before, our new builds are producing over 40% contribution. So over time that will rise as well. And historically, as we all know, there’s a spread between the CPG on diesel and gas and we’re capturing that. I think we’re way ahead of our other brethren in the C-store space in terms of percentage of our total gallons to diesel.

That’s probably our single biggest differentiator and we continue to make that a major part of our new builds going forward. In terms of adding high-flow diesel. We’re now about, last I heard, Russ, about 85, 86% of all of our stores have diesel either out front or back. But that’s probably our biggest single differentiator is our focus as a C-store operator on diesel.

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Agree. And I think even if you just think about the third quarter, that diesel premium in CPG was around $0.07 on an LTM basis being about $0.05. So you know, I think because of that higher contribution, obviously that is impactful for our margin overall and that certainly fluctuates right from quarter to quarter. But generally we see at least a several cent differential.

Brad Thomas (Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets)

I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from Seth Sigman with Barclays. Your line is open.

Seth Sigman (Analyst at Barclays)

Hey, good morning everyone. Nice quarter. I wanted to ask about inside inflation. So I think you mentioned basket up any other color on what’s happening with same SKU inflation, how you’re thinking about that. It does seem like there’s some more inflationary pressure. And just remind us, how do we think about pricing for you guys in the context of maybe more inflation coming? Thanks so much.

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Sure. Yeah. So just on a same-store basis, what we are certainly encouraged by is the Q3 momentum carrying into October. So we feel very good about that from a basket perspective. Again, there’s not anything meaningful that we’re seeing in our particular geography and with our particular customers. They are continuing to focus on similar SKUs. Again, no trading down in those SKUs. So they are handling the inflation of those products, in my view, very well.

Thomas N Trkla (See Remarks)

Thanks. First part of the question is yes, but we’re not quantifying it or projecting it. We’re doing it obviously deliberately. The Allsup’s brand name — 60-, 70-year iconic brand name in the Southwest. These are all Yesway stores that we converted to Yesway from things we bought before we bought Allsup’s in ’19. So we’ve been talking about this for a while. Our operators believe we’ll get a lift because of the name recognition, but we don’t know how to quantify that.

But we do believe it’ll be a lift. We have reiterated we have about 26 stores remaining of Yesway stores after the sale of Iowa and Kansas. Those are north. Okay. We’ll keep that portfolio very well for us in South Dakota and around South Dakota. But as we’ve talked about, our 130 store growth is in the four states. So we’ll keep the two brands, but the majority of our growth forecasted in the next four to five years will be Allsup’s stores in the Southwest. We just think this is a natural extension of really reinforcing what is a phenomenal brand and phenomenal brand recognition within the marketplace down there.

Thank you.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from Philip Blee with William Blair. Your line is open.

Philip Blee (Analyst at William Blair)

Morning, Tom. Ericka, thanks for the question. Just on store labor costs — the progress you’ve made this year is quite impressive. I’m assuming there isn’t much juice left to squeeze there going into next year. So just how should we think about OPEX growth rates going forward? And then are there other initiatives that you’re focusing on that could provide a similar level of cost efficiency over the next few years that we should be thinking about as well? Thank you.

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Good morning, and thanks for the question. As I’ve mentioned, the store labor hours optimization — we’ve been very encouraged by the continued success there, but we do expect that to moderate because our labor model is already so efficient. We are not necessarily looking from a portfolio standpoint to continue to bring that down anymore. That being said, there will always be pockets that we look to find, but would not anticipate that from a rate perspective.

Not seeing anything there other than just normal inflation pressures across the OPEX scheme. I think we’ve talked in general about certain areas where we continue to look to take things in-house as much as possible. We also are — things like R&M. We’re also focused on making sure things like telecom and other store-level direct operating expenses, we continue to kick the tires there. But to finish up your question, we generally think about sort of inflation growth rates for OPEX.

When we have the ability to create some efficiencies, we’re certainly going to do so.

Philip Blee (Analyst at William Blair)

Okay, that’s really helpful. And then just, does the success of your new store locations and formats, particularly with the benefits of your higher diesel mix and capabilities there, provide you with more incentive to sort of accelerate remodels across your existing fleet? Is there a certain percentage of your legacy stores that we should think about as being more of a top priority for investment over the next year? And just how should we think about potential lifts to comps and margins?

Thank you.

Thomas N Trkla (See Remarks)

Let me take the first part. Ericka, you take the second part. We’ve scoured the portfolio over the past four or five years and really concentrated, as we said previously, on the raze-and-rebuilds first. So there’s only a diminishing amount of those that we can do. We have scoured more, and the team is presenting to me and Ericka in the coming weeks some additional raze-and-rebuild opportunities. But they’re few and far between compared to new builds, as well as some fuel initiatives as well that Jeff is coming back to see if we can expand.

We have had a couple of opportunities crop up because of what’s going on with data centers, where basically stores before are now just going crazy in terms of the sales because of their proximity to data centers. So we’re looking now at acquiring land next door or remodeling those stores, which before didn’t really merit it just under economics, but now do. But again, I would just caution that that’s de minimis. Most of our growth will be new builds.

We do see some opportunities and are always looking for those. But we did a really good job of doing those early. Of the 95 we’ve done, the original ones were primarily raze-and-rebuilds, and then really since then it’s primarily been — almost exclusively been — the new builds. Ericka, I don’t know if you want to add anything to that.

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, no, I think Tom summarized that well. I will just say, from a total growth perspective, certainly the vast majority of that growth is going to be from new units. I do just want to herald the success that we’ve had, certainly on the fuel side of things, where we have been able to reinvest in our pumps in those expansions. Those have really helped to drive our positive same-store gallons, as I mentioned earlier. And we’re continuing to see those same-store fuel gallons remaining positive through October.

Excellent.

Philip Blee (Analyst at William Blair)

Thank you, guys. Thank you.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question comes from John Heinbockel with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is open.

John Heinbockel (Analyst at Guggenheim Securities)

Hey, guys. Wanted to start — I know it’s early — what you’ve seen from the Arizona locations, what you think the cadence for ’27 looks like because you’re ramping. It may be back-end loaded. And how many of those do you think will be in Arizona?

Thomas N Trkla (See Remarks)

Let me take — let me reiterate again: we’re going to go ahead and provide guidance on ’27 in our next earnings call. It’s too early. So we will reaffirm very strongly the 130 stores in our model. We feel very good about that. We are extremely encouraged about the reception in Arizona. They’ve done very, very well — with now open two, as we talked about in our press release. I would say a good amount of our pipeline is in Arizona and Oklahoma as the two top states right now because they’re more fertile ground for us to grow.

But we feel very good about that right now. We have a lot of activity, a lot of ground either under contract or going under contract. But I would say that a disproportionate amount of that is in Arizona right now, again simply because of how well the market has taken to our platform there. We’re extremely happy with the results so far. The two stores have opened there and we feel very good about expanding in that state. We’ll give more guidance, John, on white space in the coming quarters.

But right now I can just say again, definitively, given the success of those stores and our other new builds, we feel very good about reaffirming our 130 stores in our model.

John Heinbockel (Analyst at Guggenheim Securities)

Maybe the follow-up: can you talk about growth in the rewards program? And I think about the promotions that you’re — or the programs that you’re running here for holiday and you ran for Halloween. Are you getting to a point with the rewards program size where vendors are now wanting to fund more of that, and do you think that is in any way — I imagine it may be — helping your inside comps? Are you seeing that flow through running those programs?

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, good question. And I agree that we have great relationships with our supplier partners who do help to fund the vast majority of those promotions that come through our loyalty platform. We are continuing to see strength over the last couple quarters with an increase in that penetration, so we feel very good about that. And I do think, from our perspective anyway, the supplier partners continue to be encouraged by that type of partnership. So we think that will only continue to expand in the future.

Thomas N Trkla (See Remarks)

Thank you. Thank you very much, John.

OPERATOR

Thank you. Our next question is a follow-up from Bobby Griffin with Raymond James. Your line is open.

Bobby Griffin (Analyst at Raymond James)

Hey, guys. Thanks for the follow-up. Ericka, I just want to clarify one aspect I think you mentioned. The elevated volatility of diesel continued into October, and I just want to make sure I understand what that kind of implies for the margin. So when you guys are talking elevated volatility, is that meaning you’re seeing elevated margins — call it above what normal is — or is it driving something else?

Ericka L Ayles (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah. So diesel volatility picked up in September and then moderated slightly in October, but they do remain at elevated levels. And yeah — typically, volatility equals higher margin.

Bobby Griffin (Analyst at Raymond James)

Okay, that was my working assumption, but I just wanted to make sure that was the way you were trying to imply as we think about quarter-to-date trends. So that’s very helpful. Thank you for clarifying. That’s it for me.

Thomas N Trkla (See Remarks)

Thanks, Patty.

OPERATOR

Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Good day.

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