Yesway, Inc.

Welcome to the Yes Way, Inc. First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in 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 on your touchtone telephone. We ask that you limit yourself to one question and a follow-up. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Lauren Scott, Ambassador Relations Representative. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and thank you all for joining us today for YesWay's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. With me on today's call are Tom Terkle, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Erica Ailes, 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. 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 prices, general economic conditions, our ability to execute our growth strategy, and changes in consumer demand and fuel consumption trends. For a 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 only as of today, June 2, 2026, and we disclaim any obligation to update these statements except as may be required by law. In addition, during this conference call, we may make reference to certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and store contribution. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly applicable GAAP measures are available on the Investor Relations section of our website and in our first quarter 2026 earnings press release, which was issued earlier this morning. 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 Turkla. Tom?

Thank you, Lauren, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. As this is our first quarterly earnings call as a public company, I would like to begin by taking a step back and providing a brief overview of the SLA's history, our business, and the key attributes that we believe set us apart in the convenience retail industry. Yesway was founded in 2015 with a clear vision to build a scaled, customer-focused convenience store platform serving attractive rural and suburban markets across the United States. Since that time, we've grown rapidly and deliberately. As of March 31, 2026, we operated 449 stores, making Yesway the 15th largest convenience store operator in the country. The convenience store industry is large, growing, and highly resilient, having demonstrated durability across market cycles, supported by consumers' ongoing needs for fuel, food, beverages, and everyday essentials. Within that environment, Yesway has built a differentiated platform anchored by two strong and complementary brands, Yesway and Alsace. Both brands have deep roots in the communities they serve and benefit from strong customer loyalty. We offer a unique food service platform, positioning us as a true destination convenience store rather than simply a stop for fuel or basic necessities. Allsup's is especially well known for its iconic deep fried burrito, a signature product that has become closely associated with the brand and serves as an important driver of customer traffic, repeat visits, and loyalty for a combined store base. More broadly, our stores offer a compelling and convenient mix of freshly prepared food, grocery items, beverages, snacks, and higher margin private label products. This assortment allows us to serve multiple customer occasions throughout the day, from coffee and breakfast in the morning to lunch and dinner options, snacks, beverages, and household essentials late in the day. By combining a recognizable food service identity with everyday convenience, we have established ourselves as a go-to destination for customers seeking quality, speed, and value. Our stores are strategically located in attractive rural and suburban markets across the Southwest and Midwest. In many of these communities, our stores play a role that goes beyond traditional convenience retail. We are often the convenient retail destination of choice, and in certain markets, effectively the local grocer. That position gives us a meaningful connection with our customers and communities, and it reinforces the recurring nature of traffic across our network. Over the past decade, we have established a strong track record of growth and operational improvement, driven by a combination of new store development, strategic acquisitions, and discipline execution across our store base. Since inception, we have completed 27 acquisitions, including the transformational acquisition of Allsips in 2019, helping expand our footprint, strengthen our market position, and build density in attractive geographies. Supporting this growth is a seasoned leadership team with deep expertise across both real estate and convenience retail. Notably, our real estate expertise is critical in identifying the right markets, the right sites, and the right formats for long-term value creation. On that note, we primarily operate under a company-owned, company-operating model and own approximately 65% of the real estate underlying our store base. This approach provides operational flexibility, strong site control, and the ability to reinvest through new store development, remodels, and raise and rebuild projects. Across our stores, standardized operating procedures, training, and uniform technology supports consistency and efficiency across the platform, with many of our stores able to operate with just a single employee during non-peak hours. Additionally, our sites are typically located on oversized lots with strong visibility and traffic patterns, with our newer stores featuring expanded forecourts and dedicated high-flow diesel lanes designed to support long-term fuel growth. We also continue to invest in technology and tools to support smarter decision-making across merchandising, pricing, labor, fuel, food service, and capital allocation. These capabilities are vital to our ability to proactively evaluate growth opportunities, integrate acquisitions, improve store performance, and drive profitable growth over time. For example, the first-party data generated through our Yes Way Rewards program helps enhance customer engagement through more targeted promotions, driving more frequent visits and larger basket sizes. The SRAID's growth has been rapid and strategic, culminating on April 22nd with the successful completion of our initial public offering. The IPO was an important step for the company and provides us with additional resources and flexibility as we enter our next phase of growth. Inclusive of the full exercise of the green shoe option, we raised approximately $322 million in net proceeds which we have used to fully redeem our preferred equity and to repay $10 million of debt. An additional $20 million of debt repayment was made following the close of the offering. The IPO's position as well to execute on several key priorities. First, we plan to continue accelerating our growth through organic initiatives and selective expansion. This includes new store development, investments in innovation, technology, and product expansion that will enhance the overall customer experience. We believe these initiatives will help drive traffic, strengthen loyalty, and improve same-store sales and store-level productivity over time. Second, the IPO proceeds provided us with an opportunity to further optimize our balance sheet and strengthen our financial position. Maintaining flexibility is important as we continue to grow, particularly in an industry where scale, disciplined capital allocation, and operational execution matter. And finally, we will continue to evaluate selective, and opportunistic M&A. Acquisitions have been an important part of our growth story to date, and we believe the convenience store industry remains highly fragmented. Our approach will remain very disciplined. We will focus on opportunities where we can create value, build density, strengthen our brand presence, and apply our operating model effectively. Before turning to our first quarter results, I want to recognize the people who made this progress possible. The SOS success is directly tied to the hard work commitment, and consistent execution of our tremendous employees. From our store teams who serve customers every day, to our field leaders and corporate teams who support the platform, our people are the foundation of this company. On behalf of the leadership team and our board, I want to thank all of our employees for everything you've done to bring Yesway to the support milestone, and for everything you continue to do as we begin this next chapter as a public company. Turning now to our financial performance. We are pleased to deliver record first quarter results driven by broad-based strength across our food service, merchandising, and fuel platforms with fuel sales and margin materially higher year over year. Most notably, our profitability reached an all-time high with adjusted EBITDA increasing 112.9% year over year to over $59 million. Same-store inside merchandise sales increased 4.5%, continuing a positive trend of growth in 12 of the past 13 quarters. Same-store fuel gallons sold increased 0.2%, with total fuel margin increasing 48.5% year-over-year to 49.4 cents per gallon. At a higher level, we believe our fuel business maintains structural advantages, supported by strong local refinery partnerships, our strategic rural footprint, and a higher diesel mix, which now represents approximately 38% of total fuel volume. These attributes continue to position us as preferred fueling destination across our target markets. Given we now are approximately two months into the second quarter, we are also pleased to report that the positive momentum in our business has continued, with same-store sales and gallons positive through the end of May. Looking ahead, we remain confident in long-term growth opportunities for Yesway. We operate in a large, resilient, and highly fragmented industry, benefiting from consumer preference for faster, convenient, and affordable options. Within this environment, we believe Yesway is well positioned as a go-to destination for customers in the markets we serve. Our differentiated food service offering, best-in-class operating standards, strong service culture, flexible at value generating real estate strategy, and proven M&A capabilities all support our continued growth. With that, I will now turn the call over to Erica to discuss our quarter results and financial outlook in more detail. Erica?