Casey's General Stores

Infobox_Company
company_name=Casey's General Stores, Inc.
company_
company_type= Convenience Store
foundation=1968
location=Ankeny, Iowa
key_people= Don Lamberti, founder
Ronald W. Lamb, chairman/CEO
revenue=$2.8 billion (2005)
num_employees= 14,500
industry=Retail | homepage= [http://www.caseys.com/ www.caseys.com]

Casey's General Stores, Inc. nasdaq|CASY is a chain of convenience stores in the Midwestern United States, primarily within the states of Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and Nebraska. The company is headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa.

History

In 1959 Don Lamberti leased a service station in Des Moines, Iowa from his father. After successfully remodeling the station into a convenience store and operating it for nine years, his gasoline supplier and friend, Kurvin C. (K.C.) Fish, suggested that he purchase the Square Deal Oil Company, a service station available for sale in Boone, Iowa. Lamberti followed Fish's advice and purchased the station, which he renamed "Casey's" after Fish and as with his leased store converted the station into a convenience store. The logo on the Boone store is the same logo used today by the Casey's chain.

The Boone store (located in a town of only 12,500) did well, so Lamberti decided to see if he could duplicate his success. He purchased another store in Creston, Iowa (population 7,000) and that store did well also. Lamberti became more ambitious and decided to open a store from scratch in the even smaller town of Waukee, Iowa (population 1,500 at the time). The Waukee store proved to be the most successful of the three, so Lamberti decided to purchase and open more stores, concentrating on towns of less than 5,000 population (a variation on the tactic used in the early success of Wal-Mart).

By the late 1970s (when Casey's opened its first warehouse) the chain had 118 stores, including the original store operated by Lamberti's parents which entered the Casey's fold in 1977.

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

Casey's became a publicly traded company in October, 1983, with an initial public offering of 700,000 shares. 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).

In 1990 Casey's moved to its current facility in Ankeny.

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

In January 2006, Casey's purchased Lincoln, Nebraska-based Gas 'N Shop. [cite web|author=Reuters|title=Key Developments for CASY|url=http://www.investor.reuters.wallst.com/stocks/key-developments.asp?rpc=66&ticker=CASY&timestamp=20060109190000|accessdate=2006-11-14] On August 7, 2006, Casey's agreed to purchase the 33-store HandiMart chain, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in a $63 million deal. [cite news|first=Dave|last=DeWitte|title=Casey's Buying HandiMart in $63 Million Deal|work=The Gazette (Cedar Rapids)|date=2006-08-08|page=1A]

Casey's today

As of February 29, 2008, Casey's has 1,463 stores in nine states, of which 1,449 are company-owned and 14 are franchised stores. Casey's has announced its intent to buy out the remaining franchisees when the existing agreements expire, or otherwise terminate the agreements, and all new stores opened are company-owned stores.

Casey's currently operates in the following states, all in the Midwestern United States:
*South Dakota
*Nebraska
*Kansas
*Minnesota
*Iowa
*Missouri
*Wisconsin
*Illinois
*Indiana

The chain markets itself toward smaller communities, as according to the 2007 10-K filing, 61% of its stores are located in cities with populations of less than 5,000 and only 13% are located in cities with greater than 20,000 population. Most Casey's stores sell their own freshly made pizza and doughnuts (according to Casey's, over 27,000 pizzas and over 269,000 doughnuts per day) in addition to gasoline and other convenience store products.

Recently the chain has began upgrading or replacing its facilities as many of the original stores were dated from the 1960s and 70s. Many of the original stores were considered too small by the company, and were starting to show age. According to the Casey's website, as of July 1, 2005 the average store is 13 years old, and the average store canopy is 8.5 years old. Also, Casey's has concentrated on acquiring other convenience store chains or individual stores within and adjacent to its territory.

Price gouging investigation

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, several Casey's stores in Illinois were accused of gasoline price gouging after raising their prices to as much as $5 per gallon. Casey's eventually settled a lawsuit that Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan had filed against the chain and offered refunds to customers. [cite news|first=Kathy|last=Bergstrom|title=Casey's will give refund for fuel|work=Des Moines Register|date=2001-09-14|page=6C]

References

* cite web
url=http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Caseys-General-Stores-Inc-Company-History.html
title=Casey's General Stores, Inc. Company History
accessdate=2006-11-14
author=FundingUniverse.com

External links

* [http://www.caseys.com Official website]
* [http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=casy Yahoo's profile of Casey's General Stores]