On the desk today · Casey's General Stores
In small-town America, the gas station is the restaurant. Casey's is both.
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The Pizza Chain
at the Gas Pump
In 1968, a man named Don Lamberti took advice from his gasoline supplier, Kurvin C. Fish, and bought a service station in Boone, Iowa. He converted it into a convenience store and named it after Fish's initials — K.C., Casey's. Lamberti's father, Domenic, was an Italian immigrant and former coal miner who had run a grocery and fuel store in Des Moines since 1935. Don grew up behind that counter. He knew what a small town needed. The Boone store was, in Lamberti's words, "a hit from day one." He opened another in Ames. Then another. Always small towns. Always places where Casey's was the only store for miles.
I drove through central Iowa last fall — flat fields, grain elevators, two-lane roads. Every town I passed through had the same anchor: a Casey's. Red roof. Gas pumps out front. A pizza sign in the window. I stopped for coffee in a town of maybe 1,500 people. There was no Starbucks. No McDonald's. No Subway. Just Casey's. I ordered a slice of pepperoni pizza from the counter. It was better than it had any right to be.
Casey's is not a gas station that happens to sell pizza. It's a pizza chain that happens to sell gas. The company introduced made-from-scratch pizza in 1984 — dough mixed in-store, sauce made from scratch, toppings added by hand. Today, Casey's is the fifth-largest pizza chain in the United States. And 72% of its stores sit in communities with fewer than 20,000 people. In those towns, Casey's isn't competing with Domino's or Pizza Hut. It's the only option.
Lamberti founded the company in 1968 in Boone, Iowa. He grew it one store at a time across the Midwest. The strategy was always the same: go where the big chains won't. Small towns. Rural counties. Places where the nearest competitor is 20 miles down the road. Darren Rebelez runs the company today from Ankeny, Iowa. Casey's has grown to 2,920 stores across 20 states.
The fiscal year that ended in April 2026 was a record. Net income hit $714 million. The company generated nearly $1.5 billion in cash profit before interest, taxes, and depreciation. Inside same-store sales grew 4.2%. Total revenue in the prior fiscal year was nearly $16 billion. From gas stations in small-town Iowa.
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That 72% figure is the moat. Nearly three out of four Casey's stores operate in communities under 20,000 people. In those towns, Casey's is often the only place to fill your tank, grab a gallon of milk, or order a pizza. No national chain is going to build a Domino's in a town of 2,000 people. But Casey's is already there — with gas pumps to cover overhead and pizza to drive the margin. Geography is the moat.
The pricing power is quiet and steady. Casey's has raised its dividend for 26 consecutive years. Inside margins — the profit on food, drinks, and merchandise — have climbed to roughly 42%. The company doesn't need to raise gas prices aggressively. Fuel gets you into the parking lot. Pizza, coffee, and breakfast sandwiches are what make the money. And in a town with no other restaurant, the customer pays whatever the menu says.
I keep coming back to the pizza. In 1984, Casey's started making pizza from scratch — mixing the dough, preparing the sauce, building each pie by hand. It sounds absurd for a gas station. But that decision turned Casey's into something no competitor could replicate. You can copy a convenience store. You can copy a fuel station. But you can't copy a gas station that also happens to be the best restaurant in town. Rebelez described the record year simply: "Casey's delivered another record fiscal year, reaching $714 million of net income and nearly $1.5 billion in EBITDA."
The flywheel runs on prepared food. Gas gets the customer into the lot. But pizza, sandwiches, coffee, and donuts are where the margins live. Inside gross profit grew 10.5% in the most recent quarter. Every new store in a small town adds another location where Casey's is the only game. And every existing store gets better at selling food to a customer who has nowhere else to go.
WHY THIS WORKS
Geographic monopoly. Seventy-two percent of stores are in towns under 20,000 people. No national chain will follow them there. When you're the only store for 20 miles, the customer has no alternative.
Gas drives traffic. Pizza drives profit. Fuel gets the customer into the parking lot. Prepared food — at 42% margin — is where the money is made. The two work as a system, not separate businesses.
Fifth-largest pizza chain in America. Made from scratch since 1984. In small towns, Casey's isn't competing with Domino's — it's the only pizza in town. That positioning is nearly impossible to replicate.
26 years of dividend growth. A record no convenience store chain in America can match. The rural model generates enough cash to grow stores, pay dividends, and keep expanding into the next small town.
What most people miss: Casey's is a gas station that became the fifth-largest pizza chain in America — by going to the towns where no pizza chain would follow. The pizza is made from scratch. The stores sit in places where Casey's is the only option. And the company just posted $714 million in profit from a business model that starts with a fuel pump and ends with a pepperoni slice. Don Lamberti named it after his gas supplier. It became an empire built on dough — the kind you knead and the kind you count.
