Casey's Growth Shows No Signs of Slowing Down
ANKENY, Iowa — Expect to see the familiar red and white Casey's logo popping up outside more convenience stores.
Five years ago, Casey's General Stores Inc. made its largest acquisition in the company's history when it acquired Buchanan Energy, the owner of Bucky's Convenience Stores. The $580 million deal comprised 94 retail stores and 79 dealer locations.
Fast forward to November 2024 and the convenience retailer made history again with its acquisition of Fikes Wholesale, owner of CEFCO convenience stores. With a network of 198 c-stores, including 148 in Texas, Casey's moved its merger-and-acquisition (M&A) goalposts further down field.
The addition of the CEFCO network helped contribute to Casey's fiscal year 2025 being the largest store growth year for the retailer. In all, the company completed 35 new-builds and acquired 235 locations.
"Fiscal 2025 is a testament to our two-pronged approach of both building and acquiring stores, which ensures predictable rateable growth while still capitalizing on great opportunities like Fikes when they come along," said President and CEO Darren Rebelez during Casey's fourth quarter earnings call for its fiscal year 2025 on June 10.
Growing its network is one of the three pillars in Casey's latest three-year strategic plan, which the retailer kicked off in June 2023. The other two are accelerating its food business and enhancing operational efficiencies, as Convenience Store News previously reported.
With one year left in this latest plan, Casey's is not ready to stand still. According to Chief Financial Officer Steve Bramlage, the company expects to open at least 80 stores in fiscal 2026 through a mix of M&A and new store construction. That will bring the three-year strategic plan period total to approximately 500 stores.
"We're excited about our ability to continue to execute our store growth strategy that has been so effective for us as we look forward to fiscal 2026 and beyond. I'm very excited about the future of Casey's," Rebelez said.
Next Steps
Since officially taking ownership of the CEFCO stores in late 2024, Casey's has been busy identifying the best practices of both CEFCO and Casey's and integrating the stores in its network. Part of that work includes adding — or upgrading — kitchens in the CEFCO locations to meet Casey's stated goal to accelerate its foodservice operations.
Within 60 days of closing the deal, Casey's opened a few proof-of-concept stores that bring together the best of both the Casey's and CEFCO propositions. "We merged the two together. We had a hypothesis going in of what that would look like. In most cases, we were pretty correct. In some cases we needed to shift and adjust" Rebelez said during a press conference following the company's earnings call. "We're still through that process. We think we're closer to the end of that assessment period."
Included in those stores are a blend of CEFCO's chicken, as well as its taco and burrito food programs, and Casey's pizza and bakery programs — a blend that appears to be resonating with customers. "The prepared food business in those stores has been exceptional. So, we really think we've got it dialed in," he added.
The ability to bring acquired stores into the foodservice fold is key in Casey's M&A strategy. "I call it mission critical," Rebelez explained.
According to the chief executive, the ability to accommodate a kitchen is among the checklist items Casey's considers when looking at any potential acquisition.
"In some cases, that means we're going to add on to an existing building. In some cases, the building might be big enough to put a kitchen inside of it, but if there aren't enough stores that have the space available to add a kitchen, then we're not going to do that deal," he said. "Our prepared food business is our single biggest differentiator. It is what brings people to our stores. It drives margin, it drives sales. It's our largest synergy that we experience with any acquisition. So that is top of the list in terms of priorities for us."
In addition to exploring acquisition avenues, Casey's strategy also calls for cutting the ribbons on new-to-industry stores. It's a balanced approach to growth, Rebelez noted. As he explained, the company first identifies the number of units it wants to target for development each year and aims to meet that target with a 50-50 split of new-builds and small-deal M&A.
Ankeny-based Casey's General Stores operates approximately 2,900 stores.