Yatco hasn’t opened a new convenience store since 2019, but that’s about to change in a big way.
The Marlborough, Massachusetts-based company has four sites at various phases of construction, two of which should debut this fall and another two by the end of the year.
Yatco isn’t stopping there, either.
“We're going through the permitting process and approvals for a few others that will roll into 2025,” Hussein Yatim, vice president of Yatco, said in an interview.
All told, the 13-site chain hopes to boost its store count by about 50% over the next 12 months. It also aims to build a pipeline to keep that growth going while giving its customers a strong, consistent experience across its footprint of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
“What we've been doing the last year, year and a half, is starting to prepare for this growth and get structure and efficiencies in place so that we're able to seamlessly open the stores with, hopefully, not too much pressure on the support center staff here in the corporate office,” said Barry Ahern, vice president of retail operations.
For example, this summer, Yatco hired Dennis Darveau as the company’s vice president of property development. In that role, he’s been managing construction and other tasks that support Yatco’s growth plans. Darveau had been working with Yatco on a contract basis, but was doing so much work for them that they brought him on full time.
This will help support Yatco’s long-term expansion plan of building three to four stores every year in addition to any one-off acquisitions it might make.
Big plans, big stores
Like many other convenience retailers, Yatco is moving toward operating larger c-stores.
“I think with the industry, you'll see a lot of chains … moving towards that larger format,” said Yatim. “More of a destination, easy to enter and get out of, plenty of parking.”
Until now, Yatco has expanded through a roughly equal mix of new builds and acquisitions, which has led to it having stores of varying sizes. But as the chain focuses more on new-to-industry stores — which it can design however it wants — it’s emphasizing larger formats.
Case in point: Yatco is currently building stores in Shrewsbury and Worcester, Massachusetts, that will be 7,000 and 6,000 feet, respectively. The Shrewsbury location will be Yatco’s largest store to date, Yatmin said.
“I think the smallest one we're doing, and it's really just because of the plot of land, is 3,000 square feet,” said Yatim.
Along with the larger square footage, Yatco also worked with c-store design firm King Retail Solutions to develop a more unified look for these two stores.
“People in the business in this region know who Yatco is, but we've been really pushing ahead from the consumer standpoint for us to be more recognizable,” said Yatim.
Over the past year, Yatco has worked with the design company on the new interior, to make its c-stores instantly recognizable.
“When you go into any of these new Yatcos, it's cohesive, from the tile on the floor to the countertops to what the cooler looks like,” Yatmin said.
The stores are designed with a modern aesthetic and an open design to make use of the larger floor plans. The design mostly uses a natural palette, with wood panels adding warmth and Yatco’s green and blue used as a pop of color.
Bold signs hang above points of interest in the store to guide the shopper.
While retrofitting existing stores isn’t on the calendar yet, Yatco hopes to eventually update them to the new look as well.
Ahern and Yatim also pointed out that some of the sites for these new stores are “large developmental properties” where Yatco plans to include additional QSRs like Starbucks, car washes or other businesses in separate buildings.
Inside the store and online
Yatco works with local franchisees to bring QSRs to its c-stores. As of now, most Yatco locations have a Dunkin’. While most of the new stores will continue this tradition, the Worcester location will instead partner with Rhode Island-based Coffee Connection.
“They do more artisan-style sandwiches, espresso-based coffee, acai bowls, wraps, salads, really what I call an elevated food offering versus your traditional c-store,” said Yatim.
As consumer tastes shift, Yatco has also been working to diversify the products it offers. The company partnered with wholesale outlet Mable in 2022 to bring in snacks made from smaller, often local or family-owned companies.
“That was a cool way for us to diversify what we sell,” said Yatim.
Yatim says that interest in products beyond the mainstream is getting stronger. He noted the company’s distributor, National Convenience Distributors, now has a whole section for “elevated snacking” options.
“With people being more health conscious, depending on the market, we're trying to lean into that a little,” he said.
Yatco is also planning to relaunch its loyalty program in the near future, in conjunction with Rovertown, said Yatim.
Although the work inside and outside of its stores has taken a lot of time and focus, Yatco leaders are looking forward to their efforts coming to fruition.
“Even though we're only a 13-store chain, there are not many chains that are growing over 50% in one year, right?” said Ahern. “It's exciting.”
