Dive Brief:
- Casey’s General Stores is more than a third of the way through rebranding the CEFCO convenience stores it acquired almost two years ago, President and CEO Darren Rebelez said during the Iowa-based retailer’s first-quarter fiscal 2027 earnings call Wednesday.
- Casey’s remodeled 24 locations during Q1, accelerating the pace from the 50 conversions it completed during fiscal 2026, Rebelez said. That brought its total conversions to 74 by the end of Q1.
- The ongoing rebrands underscore Casey’s ambitions to establish itself as a household name in Texas, where the Midwestern retailer has been steadily expanding its footprint.
Dive Insight:
Casey’s acquired CEFCO and its parent company, Fikes Wholesale, for $1.1 billion in late 2024. The retailer spent much of the following year evaluating CEFCO’s brand and offering before launching a full-scale rebrand.
Last December, Rebelez said Casey’s would begin rebranding CEFCO’s locations “in earnest” at the start of 2026. About nine months into the effort, the conversions are progressing steadily, he said during Wednesday’s earnings call.
“We're extremely excited about the results we're seeing, as the average [prepared foods and dispensed beverage] lift at the stores that were remodeled to Casey's has been approximately 30% versus the results of the same period prior to remodel,” Rebelez said during Casey’s earnings call.
Rebelez added that CEFCO’s high volume of foodservice sales prior to the acquisition has helped position these stores for the transition. He described CEFCO’s prepared foods business as “probably the best that we’ve ever acquired.”
“When we can come in and take a store already doing well in prepared foods and layer our program on top of it and see the types of lifts that we're seeing, it's really encouraging,” he said.
The ramp-up in CEFCO rebrands highlights Casey’s intentions to grow in Texas, where the retailer has emerged as a competitive c-store threat over the past few years.
Besides acquiring CEFCO, Casey’s has bought the 22-site Lone Star Food Stores chain and the 24-location Pak-A-Sak brand. In summer 2025, Casey’s filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation to build seven new locations in central and eastern Texas. Rebelez said during Wednesday’s call that these NTIs “are performing very well.”
“Outside of the big four cities of Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, the rest of that entire state is Casey's country,” Rebelez said on Wednesday. “From our perspective, it's got a long, long runway for growth.”
