Casey’s General Stores made lengthy strides over the past year on its journey to add 350 convenience stores to its network by 2026. The Ankeny, Iowa-based retailer acquired 112 convenience stores between April 30, 2023 and April 30, 2024, according to its fourth-quarter earnings report released on Tuesday.
This marked one of Casey’s most active growth years on the M&A front. Since 2015, only one other year surpassed this acquisition total: Casey’s purchased 207 locations between 2021 and 2022, which was its most acquisitive year in company history, the company said at the time.
Some of Casey’s acquisitions this past year have included its purchase of 22 c-stores under the Lone Star Food Stores banner in Texas, and its buyout of 11 EZ GO locations in Nebraska and Oklahoma from Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores.
However, most of Casey’s acquisitions since April 2023 have gone under the radar and unannounced to the public. That’s because nearly all of these moves have been small in scale, mostly in the range of one to 10 locations, President and CEO Darren Rebelez said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Small-scale acquisitions have been part of Casey’s strategy since the company revealed its growth plan at its investor day last summer. At the time, Casey’s said smaller operators made good acquisition targets because they were struggling with volume loss and cost increases amid inflation. Many also lacked the funds to create a sound foodservice or loyalty program.
Rebelez said that as smaller operators in rural communities continually face these challenges, Casey sees opportunities to grow. Within the company’s M&A team is a group that’s responsible for connecting with smaller, rural operators so Casey’s can capitalize when they’re ready to leave the business.
“Sometimes those people aren't necessarily ready to sell today, but they may be in the future, and we maintain a good relationship with them,” Rebelez said. “And then when the right time for them approaches, they tend to pick up the phone, give us a call, and then we're able to usually transact on those deals.”
The first full year of this strategy has seen Casey’s total store count grow from 2,521 to 2,658, according to its earnings report. Although the retailer also built 42 new stores over the past year, the bulk of its store-count growth came from these smaller acquisitions.
The current M&A environment has allowed Casey’s to spend less money acquiring and remodeling stores than it would building new ones, Rebelez noted during Casey’s earnings call Wednesday.
“We've been able to buy a lot of stuff for below replacement cost, all-in,” he said.
But even with its focus on targeting smaller operators, Casey’s is “having discussions on larger potential deals,” Rebelez said during the earnings call.
Rebelez reiterated that same message during Casey’s subsequent press conference.
“We're definitely confident we can handle larger [deals] — it's just a matter of finding the right opportunity at the right price with the right set of assets,” he said.
