Casey's General Stores Inc.

Known as much for handmade pizza as its rural roots, Casey's General Stores had a big year in 2024 with the purchase of Temple, Texas-based Fikes Wholesale, the owners of CEFCO Convenience Stores, a chain of 198 locations in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Texas. 

The deal cost a reported $1.145 billion and strengthened the chain's presence in the Lone Star State by 148 stores. Now in 20 states, Casey's network increased by 7% when the deal closed in November. 

Historically preferring new-builds in small towns and neighboring regions, Ankeny, Iowa-based Casey's has transformed into an active, national acquirer, purchasing 63 locations from Westborough, Massachusetts-based EG America in 2023 and 94 stores from Omaha, Nebraska-based Buchanan Energy in 2021.

Darren Rebelez, who became Casey's CEO in 2019 and was named CSP's Retail Leader of the Year in 2024, vowed to "contemporize" the venerable chain. In 2020, Casey's updated its logo for the first time in 50 years and launched a new loyalty program. Enrollment in Casey's Rewards surpassed 8.5 million members in 2024. 

In 2023, Casey's introduced its own retail media network, called Casey's Access, an end-to-end retail media business bringing together convenience customer data and Casey's pizza offering. The chain is the nation's fifth largest seller of pizza, most recently announcing a limited-time Italian Deli Pizza offer in January.

For benchmarking purposes, store counts are as of Jan. 1, 2025.