Drive through Iowa, Missouri or Illinois, and you’ll pass a Casey’s roughly every few exits. Midwesterners have come to know the red-roofed convenience store and gas station where people buy diesel, a bag of ice, a lottery ticket and, increasingly, a hot pizza. Maybe it’s one of their distinctive creations, like the taco pizza or the breakfast pizza.
Casey’s is closing in on 3,000 stores, nearly half of which sit in towns of 5,000 people or fewer and about two-thirds in towns under 20,000. The Fortune 500 company’s stock price is surging as America wakes up to the stealth pizza empire sitting under its nose: it’s up more than 50% in the past 12 months for a market capitalization of $28 billion.
Bank of America Research recently ran the numbers and concluded that Casey’s pizza business ranks as the fifth-largest pizza chain in the entire U.S., when measured by prepared food and dispensed beverage sales.
Tom Brennan, Casey’s chief merchandising officer, confirmed to Fortune that it is the fifth-largest pizza chain and the fourth-largest liquor license holder in the U.S., not to mention third-largest convenience store.
“You don’t hear the other big pizza players talk about Casey’s,” he added, “but at the same time, it’s evident from our growth … we’re taking share as we continue to grow.”
