Casey’s General Stores made headlines in late July when it announced it would be buying Fikes Wholesale — parent company of CEFCO Convenience Stores — for more than $1.1 billion dollars. The deal comes with nearly 200 stores, 148 of which are in Texas. The remaining 50 are in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, all of which are new states for Casey’s.
This acquisition will generate a big bump in Casey’s store count when it closes, which is expected to happen later this year. But this is just one step in a long, steady history of growth for the Ankeny, Iowa-based company.
Casey’s is well known throughout the central U.S. for its expansive pizza menu. Its 2,600-plus stores in 17 states mean it’s nowhere near as large as the top two chains, 7-Eleven and Alimentation Couche-Tarde, but the company is still more than 50% larger than fourth-place Murphy USA according to CSP’s 2024 Top 202 report.
Casey’s growth, which has been steadily building for years, comes from both acquisitions and new builds — a trend it managed to maintain even through the COVID-19 pandemic and up to present day.
“Our two-pronged approach allows us the flexibility to build or buy, and our strong balance sheet gives us the freedom to be opportunistic with acquisitions,” CEO Darren Rebelez said during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call. “That was the case in fiscal 2024, where we had our second most acquisitive year in the company’s history.”
Casey's continues steady growth
In Casey’s 2024 fiscal year ending April 30, the company reported 42 new builds and 112 acquisitions. One of those acquired locations has not opened yet, but six acquisitions it made before the start of the fiscal year also opened during the year.
This is part of Casey’s current goal of building or buying 350 stores between fiscal years 2024 and 2026, according to its 2023 Investor Day presentation.
Aiding in these expansion plans is Casey’s focus on smaller, rural markets. Around two thirds of its stores are in towns with 20,000 people or less, where it is “less expensive to build, buy, and operate units,” according to Casey’s 2024 investor deck.
Casey's leads competitors in number of rural stores
Casey’s fiscal 2024 M&A
Casey’s is no stranger to building its own stores, but it has augmented those new builds with strategic acquisitions. In addition to some smaller, unreported deals, the company made several larger pickups.
The fiscal year 2024 M&A plans began with the purchase of 63 Minit Mart and Certified Oil stores from EG America last August. This collection of stores, in Kentucky and Tennessee, was an “excellent strategic fit” for the convenience retailer, CEO Darren Rebelez said at the time. The next acquisition brought Casey’s into a new state for the first time since 2018, when it built its first Michigan location. The convenience retailer bought Lone Star Food Stores, a 22-store chain in Texas, entering its 17th state.
Casey's made several major acquisitions in fiscal 2024
In December 2023, Casey’s acquired 11 EZ-GO stores in Nebraska and Oklahoma. Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores had bought the 22-store chain in April of that year, specifically for its turnpike locations, and sold the rest to Casey’s.
Casey’s may find it easier to make M&A deals in the coming years due to a difficult economic environment squeezing smaller retailers.
“Those pressures are continuing to mount on smaller operators, and we see that in terms of the velocity of potential M&A opportunities,” said Rebelez in the company’s Q4 earnings call.
Lone Star Food Stores join Casey’s
Zooming in on Texas, the Lone Star acquisition extended Casey’s presence to five counties in the northern part of the state, between Dallas and the border with Oklahoma. The proximity to areas Casey’s already served was an important aspect of the acquisition.
“These stores will serve as a springboard into the great state of Texas for Casey’s, while still located within our self-distribution network,” Rebelez said at the time
Casey's moves into north Texas
The acquisition included sites in Sherman, Denison, Princeton, McKinney, Sunnyvale, Allen, Bells, Van Alstyne, Gainesville, Bartonville and Denton, Texas.
Eight months after the Lone Star acquisition, Casey’s announced its intent to buy Fikes, the bulk of whose CEFCO stores are in Texas. Once the deal closes, Casey’s will not only penetrate much further into Texas, but more than sextuple its store count there
Casey's will operate in 20 states once the CEFCO deal closes
Additionally, the Fikes acquisition came with a commissary and fuel terminal to help support its stores in the state.
