ANKENY, Iowa — Casey’s General Stores Inc. has closed the acquisition of 40 convenience stores from Pilot Corp. announced in late September in a $220 million all-cash transaction. The addition gives Casey’s immediate scale in the Knoxville, Tenn., market.
The deal is part of Casey’s three-year strategic plan, shared in January 2020, which set a three-year goal of adding 345 stores to the chain.
“We are pleased to complete this transaction and expand our footprint in Tennessee and Kentucky,” said Darren Rebelez, president and CEO of Casey’s. “The Haslam family and the Pilot team have been great to work with and we look forward to welcoming team members to Casey’s and bringing our hand-made pizza program to these excellent stores.”
Rebelez said the stores “have a track record of strong performance and are high-quality assets that will be a great fit for Casey’s fresh-food program, especially our handmade pizza.”
Pilot is one of the leading suppliers of fuel and the largest operator of travel centers, with more than 800 locations across North America. It supplies more than 12 billion gallons of fuel per year. Pilot owned and operated its c-stores independently from its travel center and energy businesses and were not included in Berkshire Hathaway’s 2017 acquisition of a nearly 40% stake in Pilot Co.
For Pilot, the transaction reflects the Knoxville-based company’s “intense focus on growing our core travel-center network and energy businesses with significant investments in our people and our stores to provide the best team member and guest experience at our more than 800 locations across North America,” Pilot Chairman Jimmy Haslam said when the companies announced the deal. “Casey’s is a great convenience-store chain that shares similar values as Pilot, and we couldn’t be more excited for what they will bring to the community. We are very thankful for the tremendous service our team members have provided and know they will be in great hands with Casey’s.”
- Casey’s is No. 4 on CSP’s 2021 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. Pilot ranked No. 13.
Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey's operates more than 2,400 convenience stores in 16 states.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.