Back in the late 70s and early 1980s, my small town had a mom-and-pop convenience store, Paul’s Market, as well as one location of a regional chain, Richdale’s. It later added a store from a larger chain, White Hen Pantry.
7-Eleven and other large chains existed, but local stores, even one-offs, were common. Now, just over the past few years, a number of bigger players have swallowed up some smaller chains.
The banner retirements are real and named, according to data from NACS Magazine.
GetGo was sold to Circle K, Redwood Markets went to Jacksons (24 stores, California), and Maverick bought the Kum & Go Brand, which included about 400 locations. In all three cases, the name changes were gradual as stores got remodeled, but in the end, the classic names disappeared.
Now, the same thing has happened again as Casey’s has begun the process of removing the CEFCO name from the 198 stores it added when it bought the rival chain in 2024.
Casey’s is ending the CEFCO name
Casey’s, which operated 2,959 stores as of July 31, 2026, in 19 states, according to a recent SEC Filing, purchased Fikes Wholesale, Inc., owner of CEFCO Convenience Stores, in an all-cash transaction for $1.145 billion. The purchase price includes tax benefits valued at approximately $165 million for a net after-tax purchase price of $980 million, according to a press release.
Since the transaction closed, Casey’s has been remodeling CEFCO stores, then rebranding them under the Casey’s banner.
Casey’s CEO Darren Rebelez talked about the ongoing remodeling and renaming process during the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
“The stores that have been already remodeled to Casey’s in prior periods have performed exceptionally well, and we expect to remodel Cefco stores throughout the fiscal year,” he said.
Rebelez shared the progress on the transition.
“During fiscal year 26, we remodeled approximately 50 Cefco stores to Casey’s. In the first quarter of fiscal year 27, we have remodeled 24 more stores, We are extremely excited about the results we are seeing, as the average PFMDB lift at the stores that were remodeled to 30% versus its results of the same period prior to remodel,” he added.
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The ongoing remodeling, he noted, has not stopped Casey’s from adding new stores.
“While we are busy with CEFCO conversions, [it] does not stop us from continuing to grow the store base, as we are on track to meet our 120-store unit goal for the fiscal year,” he shared.
Rebelez did not share when the remodels would be completed and the CEFCO name retired.
Casey’s has a unique business model. About 71% of its locations are in towns with fewer than 20,000 people, and roughly half are in Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois, according to the SEC filing referenced above.
The chain comes in third by store count behind market leader 7-Eleven (12,700) and Couche-Tarde (7,308), according to CSP Daily News data.
Casey’s store count will soon surpass 3,000.Shutterstock
Convenience-store chains have been consolidating
“The pace of merger and acquisition activity in the U.S. convenience store sector is accelerating, with recent trends suggesting the nation’s c-store landscape is ripe for more change. While most of the transactions in 2024 involved smaller chains or single-store operators, several larger operators inked deals to significantly expand their footprints into new regions,” according to a report from CoBank.
That’s something Rebelez also commented on during Casey’s Q1 earnings call.
“I would say the M&A environment is, is still really good. And that is a reflection of the challenging environment that the industry finds itself in, particularly the small operators. And so it would not say it is changed. I would say it is still consistent, maybe even gotten a little better from a buyer’s perspective,” he said.
Others operating in the space see the same thing.
“There still remains a large number of chains out there in the 10 to 100 store range that, depending on what their long-term strategy is — especially if they’re family-owned businesses — may decide that they want to get out,” Rob Gallo, chief strategy officer for c-store consultancy Impact 21, told CStoreDive.
And while many of these companies have been in the same family for multiple years, their operating challenges have increased.
“It’s just more difficult to manage the chain if you’re a small operator compared to the big guys, especially with the consolidation going on across the country and in many cases, in their backyards,” Jesse Betzner, senior director for Capstone Partners, an investment banking and M&A advisory firm, told CStoreDive.
Besides acquiring CEFCO, Casey’s has bought the 22-site Lone Star Food Stores chain and is in the process of buying the 24-location Pak-A-Sak brand. Some Lone Star locations will be rebranded as Casey’s, but others may retain their original name while being remodeled to match Casey’s on the interior.
No public decision has been made on the Pak-A-Sak brand.
Smaller operators still dominate
There are 151,975 convenience stores in the United States, a slight decrease of 280 stores (0.2%) compared to the year prior, according to the 2026 NACS/NIQ TDLinx Convenience Industry Store Count.
And while it seems as if larger chains dominate, small players still play a signifcant role.
“The industry continues to be dominated by smaller operators. Overall, 95,672 stores are owned by a company that has 10 or fewer stores, 63% of the total store count. Companies operating 500-plus stores own 33,810 stores, or 22.2% of the overall total,” according to NACS data.
In addition to the slight decrease in overall stores, there has also been another meaningful change.
“While the overall store count dipped slightly, the number of convenience stores selling fuel increased by 768 stores (0.6%) to 122,620, the highest number in eight years. Convenience stores sell an estimated 80% of the fuel purchased by consumers in the United States. Overall, 80.7% of convenience stores sell fuel,” added the NACS.
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