Dive Brief:
- Casey’s General Stores sold 41 convenience stores for $42 million during fiscal 2026, Chief Financial Officer Steve Bramlage said during the company’s Q4 earnings call on Wednesday.
- The stores were located across multiple states, including Mississippi, which it entered after acquiring CEFCO Convenience Stores in late 2024. Casey’s divested 10 sites in that state, Bramlage said, marking the company’s exit from it entirely.
- Even with the sale, Casey’s total store count still grew by 20 locations between Q3 and Q4, according to its earnings report. The convenience retailer said it expects to open at least 120 additional sites in fiscal 2027 through a mix of M&A and new store construction.
Dive Insight:
Casey's has steadily expanded from its base in Iowa into multiple additional states through the years, and its exit from Mississippi appears to mark the first time in which the retailer has completely left a state after establishing operations there.
Although only 10 of Casey’s 198 CEFCO stores were located in Mississippi, leaving The Magnolia State shows that even as the country’s third largest c-store operator continues to grow, it’s doing so with a balanced approach.
During Wednesday's earnings call, Bramlage said Casey’s decided to sell the 10 Mississippi sites “given that location and the capital returns that we expected.”
“We acquired 10 or so stores as part of that total transaction in the state of Mississippi, and upon further review, decided that it just wasn't the right place for us to fly the flag at the moment,” he said.
Bramlage said the other 31 stores sold during the fourth quarter were a combination of CEFCO locations and sites Casey’s acquired in previous transactions. While the CEFCO deal also brought Casey’s into Alabama and Florida, there’s no indication that Casey’s intends to leave those states.
“Mississippi is probably the highest profile decision that we made against those 41 [c-stores],” Bramlage said.
A spokesperson from Casey’s said that the 41 stores were sold to “a variety of buyers,” although they declined to share who. They added that Casey’s decided to sell these stores since “they were not aligned with our long-term growth strategy.”
The plan to open 120 new stores in fiscal 2027 is in line with Casey’s typical growth algorithm, which calls for a 4% increase in site count annually, President and CEO Darren Rebelez said during the earnings call. However, Casey’s didn’t achieve that 4% last year due to focusing on the CEFCO integration, he added.
Now that the CEFCO integration is well underway — 50 sites have been rebranded, Rebelez and Bramlage said — Casey’s expects to once again hit its standard rate of new stores.
“The guidance for store growth for this year is much more getting back on track from a historic standpoint and really more consistent with our growth algorithm,” Rebelez said.
