On Casey’s General Stores’ earnings call June 10, Darren Rebelez, chairman, president and CEO, said the company thinks chicken wings have the potential to be the size of its pizza business.
Three months later, during the company’s first-quarter 2027 earnings call on Sept. 9, Rebelez said wings are performing well in the 850 locations where they’re being sold. He added that after taking a break from rolling out wings during the summer, Casey’s plans to start adding wings to more stores “probably in the early third quarter.”
One encouraging aspect to wing sales is that about 38% of customers who have purchased wings had a wings-only order, Rebelez said.
Strategically, Casey’s, which has 2,921 stores, was looking to add another occasion in addition to pizza, “and so those wing-only orders really represent that incremental occasion, and so the folks that have had a wing-only order have increased their frequency of prepared-food purchases overall by about 30%, so it’s a really good fact pattern for us,” Rebelez said.
In the Des Moines market, he added, where wings have been sold the longest, Casey’s was up 46% in the quarter over prior years, indicating that there’s still a long runway for growth.
- Casey’s General Stores is No. 3 is on CSP’s 2026 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.
Elsewhere in food, Rebelez said on the company’s earnings call that prepared food and dispensed beverage transactions remain strong.
These transactions were up more than 100 basis points, driving prepared food and dispensed beverage units up nearly 4% versus the same period in the prior year “as guests continue to gravitate toward our abundant offering, compelling value and continued innovations such as our Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza LTO,” Rebelez said. “Inside margin expansion was driven primarily by prepared food and dispensed beverage mix.”
Same-store sales were up 3.2% for the quarter, or 7.7% on a two-year stack basis, and gross profit margin for the quarter was 42.2%, up 30 basis points from the prior year, he said.
“Prepared food, dispensed beverage led the way,” Rebelez said. “The same-store sales were up 4.8%, or 10.7% on a two-year stack basis, with a gross profit margin of 59.3%."
He added that same-store sales growth “was highlighted by great performance in whole pies, with units up nearly double digits in the quarter.”
Also for the quarter, prepared food and dispensed beverage sales rose by $34 million to $493 million, an increase of 7.4%, and grocery and general merchandise sales increased by $60 million to $1.28 billion an increase of 4.9%, said Steve Bramlage, Casey’s chief financial officer.
“Prepared food and dispensed beverage gross profit margin was 59.3%, up 130 basis points from prior year,” Bramlage said. “Cheese was $1.93 per pound for the quarter compared to $2.11 per pound last year. It’s a decrease of 9%.”
Rebelez added that the Casey’s “food team is doing a tremendous job. Whole pies have continued their strong momentum in the quarter. Guests are flocking to the Casey’s rewards platform because we’re now over 11 million members.
“We believe our abundant and value-oriented food offering is not only a differentiator driving inside traffic but is also driving traffic to the pump,” he said.
Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey’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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