Darren Rebelez sees big potential in Casey’s General Stores’ chicken wing program—possibly matching the convenience-store chain’s pizza business over time.
“We think this has the potential to be the size of the pizza business, frankly,” Rebelez, chairman, president and CEO of Casey’s, said during the company’s fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2026 earnings call June 10.
But it won’t happen overnight. It took Casey’s 40 years to develop its pizza program, he said. In addition to being a convenience-store retailer, Casey’s touts itself as the fifth largest pizza chain in the U.S., according to its website.
“It’s going to take us some time to continue to build that credibility, but everything we’re seeing right now would suggest that this can be an incremental occasion, that it’s good enough to stand on its own,” he said.
- 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 Des Moines area, where Casey’s has been selling wings for more a year, “we’re comping at a 20% growth rate year over year from the launch,” Rebelez said. “So, we think there’s still a lot of upside there. We still have two more years of just rolling it out across the system before we get fully scaled.”
Prepared foods and nonalcohol beverages were keys to “extremely strong” inside same-store sales for the year at Casey’s, Rebelez said. Casey’s has 2,921 locations.
“Casey’s delivered another record fiscal year as our team closed out the three-year strategic plan on an extremely high note, reaching $714 million of net income and nearly $1.5 billion in EBITDA," Rebelez said. The EBITDA was an increase of 23% from the prior year.
Casey's isn't the only business leaning into chicken.
Sales at chicken chains grew by 5.3% in 2025, according to Technomic’s Top 500 Restaurant Chains report. But CSP sister publication Restaurant Businessreported that sales were slower compared to previous years. Chicken chain sales grew 9.1% in 2024, for instance, and were up more than 12% in 2023.
Other c-stores have been ramping up their chicken offerings.
Pilot earlier this month announced it has “reimagined” its chicken tenders.
“We fine-tuned texture, size and flavor to create heartier, meatier Pilot eats chicken tenders worth pulling over for,” the Knoxville, Tennessee-based company said. “They stay juicy and full of flavor, bite after bite.”
Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven earlier this year rolled out $5 chicken deals at its Raise the Roost, Speedy Cafe and Laredo Taco Company restaurants.
One deal is three hand-breaded chicken tenders coated in lemon pepper for $5 at 7-Eleven’s Raise the Roost locations.
Finally, Oklahoma City-based Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores last year partnered with a new quick-service restaurant brand: Buffalo Wild Wings Go. The first Love’s and Buffalo Wild Wings Go location opened at the Dodge City, Kansas, travel stop.
Ankeny, Iowa-basedCasey’s, a Fortune 500 company, operates more than 2,900 c-stores in the greater Midwest under the Casey’s and goodstop brands and in Texas under the Lone Star Food Stores and CEFCO brands. The company is the third-largest convenience-store retailer, the fourth-largest holder of liquor licenses and the fifth-largest pizza chain in the United States.
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