ANKENY, Iowa -- Casey's General Stores Inc. has announced that the company has completed its final due diligence and will break ground on its first site in the state of Tennessee in June. This store will be located in Dyersburg, Tenn., and will mark the 13th state in Casey's area of operations.
The move follows the retailer's mid-March announcement that it was breaking ground on its first store in Kentucky, in Cadiz, marking its entry into its 12th state. It entered Arkansas, its 11th state, in April (see Related Content below for previous CSP Daily News coverage).
"We believe the state of Tennessee provides an excellent opportunity for Casey's," said Robert Myers, president and CEO of Casey's General Stores. "We plan to open our store in Dyersburg in October. The community is a perfect fit for our business model, particularly our foodservice program that offers made-from-scratch pizza, homemade donuts, and our new made-to-order sub sandwiches."
The company has been talking about adding new states to its geographic footprint, as well as hinting at possible acquisitions in those states. Arkansas, western Kentucky and western Tennessee "are opportunities for us," Casey's CFO Bill Walljasper said in December. "We have land secured in Kentucky; we have land under contract in Tennessee; we have additional sites under contract in Arkansas. … As we start to penetrate those states, hopefully we'll gain a little traction on acquisitions in those states as well."
Based in Ankeny, Iowa, Casey's is a leading independently owned convenience store chain in the Midwest and one of the largest in the country. As of Jan. 31, 2012, the company owned and operated 1,686 stores in 11 states.
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