Dive Brief:
- Casey’s General Stores plans to expand its chicken wing line to all of its 2,900-plus convenience stores across 19 states, President and CEO Darren Rebelez said during the retailer’s third-quarter earnings call on Tuesday.
- Casey’s piloted chicken wings at select stores in its home base of Des Moines, Iowa, in January 2025. A little over a year later, the wings have reached more than 550 locations, and Rebelez said he estimates the fried protein to hit menus at the rest of Casey’s stores over the next two years.
- Although the retailer isn’t slowing its hallmark pizza operations, going all-in on chicken wings signals that the retailer is committed to expanding and diversifying its food business.
Dive Insight:
About eight weeks after debuting the wings at over 200 locations in Des Moines last year, Casey’s said it was seeing positive results from the pilot. In September, the retailer reported a whopping 14% year-over-year boost in inside sales, including a near-6% increase in prepared foods and beverages.
That growth has continued into 2026, as Casey’s same-store prepared food and beverage sales “led the way” in its latest quarter, Rebelez said during Tuesday’s call. Sales were up over 4% with an average margin of over 58%, he added.
Although he called out numerous food options that contributed to the performance, such as pizza and hot sandwiches, Rebelez also discussed the growth of its wing business. He said that wings have “been largely incremental,” as pizza units sold at stores that sold wings were up high-single-digit percentages during the quarter.
“We're also seeing that when people are buying our wings, they are increasing their frequency of visit as a result of that,” he said. “So we feel very good about the progress so far.”
Casey’s wings come in garlic parmesan, barbecue, sweet chili, Buffalo and mango habanero flavors in both bone-in and boneless styles. According to Casey’s website, the standard eight-count order is available for $7.99 — and Rebelez said Casey’s aims to keep prices “relative to any sort of competitor.”
Rebelez said the two-year timeline to add wings to the rest of its stores reflects the time needed to install commercial fryers and train staff on how to handle the product. He emphasized that during this period, wings and pizza are both going to be a priority.
“We have a long way to go in terms of growing the wing business,” he said. “So we're more focused on doing that and doing that well, and getting that velocity up and creating that incremental occasion per-week in that business before we start tackling other products.”
