At a Glance

  • Casey's General Stores President and CEO Darren Rebelez said on the company's third-quarter earnings call Tuesday (March 11) that it plans to expand its chicken wings offering to more than 2,900 convenience stores across 19 states.
  • Casey's piloted chicken wings in January 2025 at select stores in Des Moines, Iowa, where it is headquartered. More than a year later, wings are now available at over 550 stores, and Rebelez expects to roll them out to all remaining locations over the next two years.
  • While the retailer hasn't slowed down its signature pizza business, the full commitment to chicken wings signals its dedication to expanding and diversifying its food offerings.

Dive Insight

About eight weeks after launching chicken wings at more than 200 stores in Des Moines last year, Casey's said the pilot yielded positive results. In September 2025, the company reported same-store sales growth of up to 14% year over year, with prepared food and beverage sales rising nearly 6%.

That momentum carried into 2026, with Rebelez noting on Tuesday's call that Casey's same-store prepared food and beverage sales "led the way" in the most recent quarter, with sales up more than 4% and average margins exceeding 58%.

Although he credited various food items like pizza and hot sandwiches for the performance, he also discussed the growth of the chicken wing business. He said wings are "largely incremental," as pizza unit sales at stores offering wings grew by a high-single-digit percentage during the quarter.

"We're also seeing that when people buy our wings, their visit frequency increases as a result," he said. "So we're very pleased with the progress we're making."

Casey's wings come in flavors like garlic parmesan, barbecue, sweet chili, buffalo, and mango habanero, and are available in both bone-in and boneless options. According to Casey's website, a standard 8-piece order costs $7.99 — a price point Rebelez said Casey's aims to keep "competitive with anyone else out there."

Rebelez said the two-year timeline to bring wings to the rest of its stores reflects the time needed to install commercial fryers and train employees to handle the product. He emphasized that both wings and pizza will remain priorities during this period.

"We've got a long way to go in terms of growing the chicken wing business," he said. "So we're more focused on doing that well, driving velocity, and creating weekly incremental consumption occasions in that business before we start getting into other products."