Casey's history

In 1967 Kurvin C. Fish, a salesman who sold Lamberti his gasoline, persuaded him to buy an Ames, Iowa oil company, which owned four Square Deal service stations.

Since our humble beginning in 1968 as a general store in Boone, Iowa, Casey’s has steadily grown from the heart of one community to the next.

After Fish's refinery was taken over by Ashland Oil in 1970, financing growth became more difficult, so Lamberti and Fish took two more partners.

In 1980, Casey's established a profit-sharing and stock-ownership plan for employees who had worked at Casey's for 12 consecutive months and were at least 21 years of age.

In 1982, Casey's opened its first Distribution Center in Urbandale, Iowa.

A 55,000-square-foot distribution center was opened in Urbandale, Iowa, in 1983 to serve the chain and was furnished with a state-of-the-art computer system.

Around this time Casey's began to sell doughnuts in its stores; in December 1984 it introduced pizza into its stores (which is one of its signature items today).

By the end of 1985 pizza was available in 85 stores, and the following year the stores started selling by the slice as well.

A company commissary began preparing sandwiches in 1986 for sale in the stores.

By 1990 start-up stores were costing Casey's from $350,000 to $400,000 each and were about six feet longer, providing room for an office and facilities for the handicapped.

For every store opened, Lamberti estimated in 1992 that three full-time and nine part-time jobs were created.

The recipe was never changed, and by the end of 1994 Casey's was, according to one reckoning, the nation's seventh-largest retailer of pizza.

Casey's 1,000th store opened in Altoona, Iowa in 1996, the same year Casey's exceeded US$1 billion in annual sales.

Annual sales exceeded $1.1 billion in 1997.

Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan charged Casey's with violation of consumer fraud law after gasoline prices were raised to $5 per gallon in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Casey's "invested heavily in technology and systems" to improve profits, the Business Record (Des Moines) reported in September 2002.

More people began driving to those convenience stores during 2003.

Prepared foods, while producing just 8 percent of sales, yielded 26 percent of total gross profits, according to a June 2005 United States Business Review.

On August 7, 2006, Casey's agreed to purchase the 33-store HandiMart chain, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in a $63 million deal.

Casey's rejected Couche-Tard's offer and was successful in September 2010 in retaining its board of directors vs.

Casey's announced in 2017 that it plans to open about 10 new locations in western Ohio.

Casey's announced plans in August 2018 to build a store in Huber Heights, Ohio.

In November 2020, Casey's announced it was acquiring Omaha-based Bucky’s Convenience Stores, a 94 store chain, in a $580 million deal.

In September 2021, Casey's purchased 38 Pilot Food Mart locations and two truck stop locations from Pilot Corporation.