Retailer News

How convenience-store chain Casey’s is making waves in the pizza business

A Deeper Dive: Tom Brennan, chief merchandising officer for the Iowa-based chain Casey’s, joins the restaurant finance podcast to talk pizza, beverages and competition with restaurants

What is the country’s fifth largest pizza concept doing to expand its reach?

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Tom Brennan, the chief merchandising officer for the Iowa-based convenience-store chain Casey’s.

That is right. Casey’s is the fifth-largest pizza concept in the U.S., at least based on sales. 

This is a fascinating conversation with a top executive of a company that is a growing competitor with a number of different restaurant chains, including much of the pizza business. 

  • Casey’s General Stores Inc. is No. 3 on CSP2025 Top 202 ranking of convenience-store chains by store count.

We talk about that pizza business and how it became so vital to the company. Casey’s has been generating strong pizza sales this year even as fast-food pizza chains have been stagnant. Tom explains the company’s secret.

We also talk about the company’s broader foray into the food business and we also talk about beverages and how Casey’s plans to improve its sales in that area. 

We’re talking convenience store pizza on A Deeper Dive so please check it out. 

This story and podcast originally ran in CSP's sister publication Restaurant Business

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on Spotify.

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.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Beverages

The beverage boom is transforming the soda fountain

As restaurants look to meet growing demand for specialty beverages, they are tapping equipment suppliers for new products

Fuels

OPIS’s chief oil analyst answers 6 questions on Iran

Denton Cinquegrana tells convenience and fuel retailers what to watch

Foodservice

Here are the restaurant segments most ripe for c-store competition

Convenience stores have plenty of runway to go head-to-head with restaurants on pizza, breakfast, fried chicken and more

Trending

More from our partners