The growth of energy drinks “defies gravity,” Tom Brennan, Casey’s chief merchandising officer, said June 24 at the company’s 2026 Investor Day.
“We’ve responded by expanding cold vault space to support that increasing velocity,” Brennan said at the event in New York City, which was also webcast. “The speed at which we can adapt to changing categories is one of the big structural advantages of being 100% company-owned and -operated. Giving more oxygen to a growing category in the form of additional facings translated directly into results, helping to drive mid-teens growth in both sales and units over a three-year period."
- Casey’s General Stores is No. 3 on CSP’s 2026 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.
In the Ankeny, Iowa-based company’s 2023 fiscal year, its most common store planogram had two cooler doors and 17 shelves devoted to energy drinks, Brennan said. In fiscal year 2026, which ended April 30, the company had three doors and 24 shelves. In a three-year compound annual growth rate, average per-store-day dollar sales for energy drinks grew 16%, and average-per-store day unit sales grew 14%.
“It's a good proof point of how we operate,” Brennan said. “We identify where the guest is moving, and we reallocate space and capital quickly to capture that opportunity.”
Being early, exclusive on product launches
Another key traffic lever is being early and exclusive on new, high-quality product launches, Brennan said.
“Our scale, strong vendor partnerships and vertically integrated model allow us to bring differentiated products to market quickly and with meaningful impact,” he said. “These launches are highly incremental for both Casey’s and our partners, capturing guest attention and driving engagement at the shelf.”
There were four Casey’s exclusive and new market launch items in fiscal year 2022, five in 2023, seven in 2024 and eight in 2025, he said. There were 11 in 2026, with 17 planned for 2027.
Brennan said that during Casey’s new market launch of Monster’s Ultra Red, White and Blue Razz, 28% of new buyers had never purchased an energy drink at Casey’s, he said, “clear evidence of incremental trial.”
“This isn’t about shifting share, it’s about driving new trips and expanding our guest base,” Brennan said.
Underpinning this is a highly integrated marketing engine operating across social, loyalty, paid media, digital merchandising and Casey’s own channels, he said.
“This isn’t a set of disconnected functions,” he said. “It’s one coordinated system designed to acquire new guests, engage them across touchpoints and ultimately drive them back into the Casey’s ecosystem.”
Brennan called this level of integration a differentiator for Casey’s and a key driver of sustained traffic and engagement.
“And importantly, this creates a powerful flywheel,” he said, adding that Casey’s invests in digital capabilities and personalization, which drives higher loyalty participation.
That, in turn, increases transactions and engagement, which generates more data and unlocks “new monetization opportunities,” he said. “We then reinvest those gains back into the system, further strengthening the cycle.”
The flywheel is a key driver of Casey’s ability to deliver repeatable, long-term growth, and a critical enabler of that flywheel is the company’s investment in the digital experience, he said.
“We’ve rebuilt both the app and web platforms, giving us the ability to personalize at scale and accelerate our speed to market,” he said. “From here, the focus is on continuing to simplify the guest experience, expanding rewards functionality and ensuring our back-end infrastructure can support continued growth.”
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