Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator instructions). Our first question comes from Bryan Hunt with Wachovia. Please go ahead.
Bryan Hunt – Wachovia
Good morning everyone. Sam, I was wondering if you could discuss the stores you have rebranded so far T&C and how those sales may have accelerated once you put up new signage and new frontage and what exactly transpired after the fact?
Sam Susser
Sure, Bryan. The three stores that we have converted, two of them were really outperforming trends, one is pretty flattish on balance but the three were seeing 5 or 10 points a pickup versus the trend line. But the sample is so small and there is so many sites specific issues relating to new competition and changes and employment in one of the towns. We are not extrapolating those results mainly ahead. The stores look dramatically better. They have really been freshened up. They are brighter, much more appealing. Our food, service unit growth is up materially. We are continuing to tweak the offering out in West Texas to try to get it right and that will be a multi-year process. But the change in those field stores is very dramatic and we are working with suppliers to bring as much cost out of it as we can while still delivering the same dramatic feel from a customer standpoint.
Bryan Hunt – Wachovia
Alright. My question, you are going to stick with the rebranding. When you think about the CapEx, you initially circled to rebrand all these stores. More in a much different environment, I mean, there is a lot more construction workers and contractors looking for jobs and competing for jobs, are your net rebrands and remodels going to cost you materially less than you originally targeted. And I was wondering if you could circle that number for us, what the total rebrand cost maybe? Thanks. And I will get back in the queue.
Sam Susser
Sure. Order of magnitude the rebranding and upgrade cost for this group of stores is order of magnitude directionally $20 million-$22 million, included in that will be some replacements of old equipment that we feel is been harvested too long and also there is some hard dollars in that that are not branding, the actual brand part is much smaller than the grand total.
I would say that the vast majority of the $22 million will get to equipment and hard assets, signage fuel pumps and the like. And there is actually I think better deals to be added on some of that, because for sure your point is debt on, there is not a lot of construction going on, and we are taking our time to negotiate we will hopefully be the most thoughtful package possible. But the original estimate the same might be 5% Bryan, they are not going to be 20%.
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