Yesway says 'yes' to more store brands
Yesway is making a big bet that convenience store shoppers want more private brands.
The fast growing C-store chain is adding Yesway Candy and Yesway Baked Goods to its private brand assortment. The retailer says the expanded product catalog reinforces Yesway’s brand promise to provide its customers with a terrific shopping experience with national brand quality products at value-driven price points.
“The response to our private label brand from our customers is terrific,” said Darrin Samaha, vice president and brand manager, Yesway. “The Yesway products are a tremendous hit with our customers. In Texas for example, our fried pies are flying off the shelves and we are working as quickly as possible to get more of them in stores to keep up with demand.”
The new own brand products include a variety of loose bag candy and baked goods such as fried pies, muffins and donuts, with eight to 10 SKUs in each category.
The retailer says customers participating in Yesway's Rewards program will reap more benefits and value from this phase of Yesway’s private brand launch in the form of a higher earn velocity on reward items, digital sampling, private label clubs and double points.
According to the company, it's looking at more categories to develop as private brand, including a full line of salty snack chips, meat snacks and an assortment of nuts and trail mix.
"Yesway’s private label products match or exceed national brand quality products, but at a much more compelling value,” said Derek Gaskins, Yesway senior vice president of merchandising and procurement. “In early 2019, our customers can look forward to continued growth and evolution in our private label offers as well as the Yesway Rewards Program. We view both as engines for our brand development and are excited about continuing to use both to drive customer engagement.”
Yesway formally launched its private brand assortment earlier this summer with Yesway Water.
Yesway operates 150 stores in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska and New Mexico.