Casey’s General Stores has begun converting CEFCO Convenience Stores in Florida.
Its stores in Defuniak Springs and Freeport, both in Walton County, were converted last week, Casey’s told CSP. They were the first stores in Florida to be converted.
In the coming weeks, Casey’s will begin converting 10 CEFCO stores in the Florida counties of Escambia and Santa Rosa.
The next conversions will be stores in Pensacola and Pace, Florida, according to the Pensacola News Journal. In mid-April, Casey’s will move on to stores in Gulf Breeze and Navarre.
- Casey’s General Stores is No. 3 on CSP’s 2026 Top 40 update to the 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. Watch for the full 2026 Top 202 ranking in June.
Rebranding the 198 CEFCO stores that Casey’s acquired in November 2024 would begin in early 2026, Darren Rebelez, chairman, president and CEO of the c-store chain, said during the company’s 2026 second-quarter earnings call in December.
Casey's acquired the CEFCO stores when it purchased Fikes Wholesale, owner of CEFCO, for $1.145 billion in November 2024.
“That effort in terms of rebranding will all start to kick off in earnest at the beginning of the calendar year,” Rebelez said in December. “We’ll start converting their larger stores that have kitchens in them already. Those are a little bit easier from a conversion standpoint. And then once we get those done, then we’ll start to convert the other stores.”
Casey’s also will expand into Alabama with locations in Axis, Foley, Gulf Shores, Loxley and Mobile, the News Journal reported.
“Our growth in Alabama and Florida is an exciting chapter for Casey’s as we welcome new guests, team members and communities into Casey’s Country. At Casey’s, our purpose is to make life better for our communities and guests every day, and we look forward to serving our new neighbors,” Ena Williams, Casey’s chief operating officer, wrote in a statement, the News Journal reported. “They’ll find everything they need in our stores to keep their day going—from our iconic handmade pizza and fresh sandwiches to snacks, drinks and everyday essentials.”
Rebelez in December said the CEFCO stores are carrying a lower margin than Casey’s stores, both in prepared foods and in grocery and general merchandise, “because they’re still CEFCO stores, they are not Casey’s stores yet.”
He added he expects the “trajectory will change a bit on the prepared foods side in particular, once we get those kitchens in and rebranded to Casey’s and they get our full assortment with private label and all the rest.
“We expect that margin to accrete over time,” he continued. “But as it stands right now, their margin rate in prepared foods is about half of what the mothership Casey’s prepared foods margin is. So it is going have an impact. I was really proud of the team this quarter in terms of managing the rest of the business, whether it’s through cost of goods management, waste management and overall execution, so that we mitigated that impact from the CEFCO stores on to the overall Casey’s portfolio.”
The acquisition gave the convenience-store retailer 148 additional locations in Texas, a highly strategic market for Casey’s, as well as 50 stores in the southeastern states of Alabama (27 stores), Florida (13) and Mississippi (10).
“This acquisition is the largest in Casey’s history and in line with the strategic plan laid out at the June 2023 Investor Day,” Rebelez said in November 2024.
Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey’s has approximately 2,900 convenience stores in 20 states. It is the third-largest c-store retailer and the fifth-largest pizza chain in the United States. In fiscal 2025, Casey’s built or acquired 270 stores, a record for the company. The majority came via Casey’s November 2024 acquisition of 198 CEFCO stores from Fikes Wholesale.
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