Casey’s pizza chain growth has pushed the Midwestern convenience retailer into fifth place among the largest pizza chains in the United States, with its stock up more than 50% over the past 12 months and a market capitalisation of $28 billion.
Bank of America Research calculated the ranking by measuring prepared food and dispensed beverage sales. Tom Brennan, Casey’s chief merchandising officer, confirmed the position to Fortune, adding that the company is also the fourth-largest liquor licence holder and third-largest convenience store chain in the country.
‘You don’t hear the other big pizza players talk about Casey’s,’ Brennan said, ‘but at the same time, it’s evident from our growth, we’re taking share as we continue to grow.’
Casey’s pizza chain growth built on small-town strategy
The company is closing in on 3,000 stores, nearly half in towns of 5,000 people or fewer and about two-thirds in towns under 20,000 across 19 states. The chain traces its origins to 1968, when Donald Lamberti converted a service station in Boone, Iowa. Pizza joined the menu in 1984.
Brennan describes the model as a ‘defensible moat’: build where the population is too small for national rivals to bother, and gradually outcompete big pizza on turf it never sought. ‘About half of our stores don’t have a national pizza competitor within what we consider a competitive rating,’ he said.
That positioning looks increasingly valuable. Technomic data shows the roughly $31 billion quick-service pizza category turned negative in 2025 after barely growing the year before. Casey’s, Brennan argues, is playing a different game.
While food-away-from-home prices are up about 14% over the past three years, Casey’s prepared food and dispensed beverage prices have risen only 5% over the same period, according to Brennan, citing inflation data. Prepared food and beverages carried an estimated 58% gross margin in fiscal 2025, more than double the company’s overall margin of roughly 23.5%, according to Bank of America.
Gen Z engagement and the Texas frontier
Casey’s social team found its penetration with Gen Z has climbed 600 basis points over the past three years based on engagement, driven partly by a durable genre of gas-station food reviews on TikTok and YouTube. Creators repeatedly single out the chain’s scratch-made dough and on-site pizza ovens.
Sauced Wings, piloted in January 2025, have grown to almost 900 stores and are set to roll out further across the chain over the next two years.
Texas is the stated next frontier. Iowa has roughly 3 million people and 550 Casey’s stores; Texas has roughly 30 million people and, in Brennan’s words, ‘room to run’ along the Interstate-35 corridor.
Brennan, who also serves on the retail board of the National Association of Convenience Stores, said more quality operators in the convenience channel benefit everyone. ‘The more good operators we have who really deliver delicious food in our channel, it lifts everybody up.’
