Caseys General Stores Inc Q3 2025 Earnings Call Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Jacob Aiken-Phillips - Melius Research - Analyst : First, I want to ask someone I guess more broad strategic, both of you joined in like 2019, 2020, and you've overseen the company through like some volatile times, pandemic, inflation, but now, we're up against kind of a volatile policy backdrop, tariffs, maybe some accelerating inflation. So just wondering if you could talk about like how Casey's has set up things that have changed over the past 4 or 5 years and why you're confident that Casey's can operate in this potentially volatile environment.

Question: Jacob Aiken-Phillips - Melius Research - Analyst : And then I guess just as a follow up on Fikes, it was known that it was going to be downloaded to margins, so I guess mainly from prepared food, what are the like easy things to fix? Is it just a factor of different product mix and what are the timelines to like kind of helping those stores improve on their margins? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 12, 2025 / 12:30PM, CASY.OQ - Q3 2025 Caseys General Stores Inc Earnings Call

Question: Anthony Bonadio - Wells Fargo - Analyst : So just digging in on Fikes a little bit more, can you just maybe talk a little bit more about early performance from that asset, how the integration's going and then any change to how you're thinking about the cadence and magnitude of synergies?

Question: Anthony Bonadio - Wells Fargo - Analyst : And then just on the gallon side, you guys put up a really strong fuel gallon quarter. Well, we've generally seen pretty choppy, industry data and results from others. So can you just talk a little bit more about what you think driving that up performance, and then just maybe your latest thinking on the right balance between gallon growth, and margin as you look to optimize gross profit dollars.

Question: Bonnie Herzog - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : I wanted to ask about just the fears of recession right now seem to be gaining some momentum recently so just hoping you could touch on how your business model and value proposition might position you hopefully, well in the case of a recessionary environment? And along those lines, have you become more aggressive on your food and beverage promotions recently given the increased promotional intensity we're seeing at some of the QSRs, any broader commentary on the consumer, your recessionary playbook and promotional levels would be helpful.

Question: Mike Montani - Evercore ISI - Analyst : So you had a two-parter here. The first one was just in terms of a high level, maybe if you could talk a little bit about the state of the consumer through your eyes. And secondly, like the value GAAP positioning that you see versus peers given some of the promotional activity from some of the other dining options that may exist out there.

Question: Bobby Griffin - Raymond James - Analyst : So I guess, Darren, I want to circle back on February and just kind of ask in the sense of, obviously, there's a lot of anxiety on consumer spending from investors and different things like that. But when you kind of X out the weather or look in the regions of your business that might not have been impacted quite as much on a year-to-year basis, is there anything you can share to kind of give comfort that this really was a weather impact around February, any data or anything like that?

Question: Bobby Griffin - Raymond James - Analyst : And then maybe just on the coffee promotion as well as the wing test, just anything more you can share on that in particular, how they went and it's something, I know coffee's been a category you guys have talked about maybe being able to do a little better and kind of pushing, is that something that was successful and that might continue going forward?

Question: Krisztina Katai - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : So question on prepared foods there and you noted that innovation is driving the results there. So I was wondering if you can help contextualize for us how innovation is indeed driving that market share as it relates to bakery, hot sandwiches, etc. Where do you see the greatest untapped opportunity, whether that is a broader wings roll out, and we understand February has unique noise, but it sounds like March has bounced back. Is that a fair take?

Question: Krisztina Katai - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : Yeah, just it sounds like he said that as the weather essentially turned it started to bounce back so is that a fair take to say that March is seeing sort of normalized level of inside comp growth?

Question: Kelly Bania - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst : Wanted to just circle back on Fikes. You gave several of the figures, but just curious how much EBITDA, the acquisition of Fikes added to the quarter and how much it's contributing to the 11% EBITDA growth forecast for the year? And if anything has changed on that front whether it's the performance of the business or just timing of integration activities, just an update on that.

Question: Kelly Bania - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst : And on fuel, you talked a little bit about the factors driving the strong, seeing stored gallons, but I was just wondering if you can talk about how Casey markets, kind of legacy markets performed from a fuel margin standpoint because we were expecting maybe a little bit of dilution from the Fikes CPG margins just given their regions, and where they operate. But just kind of curious what more of a same store Casey fuel margin looks like and just what your take on the performance of fuel margins is today and when we could maybe start to see those up year over year.

Question: Chuck Cerankosky - Northcoast research - Analyst : Looking at the wings business, is that at the stage, you talked about launching it in Des Moines, I think that was where he said, is it at the decision point where it will become an offering throughout the Casey's footprint?

Question: Chuck Cerankosky - Northcoast research - Analyst : Well, you -- do you have any additional cities where will you be tested?

Question: John Royall - JP Morgan - Analyst : So my first question is a strategic question and appreciating that you're very early days in the Fikes acquisition and the integration will take some time, but as you think through your next legs of growth longer term, you do have this white space in Texas where you're essentially a new entrant. Is it safe to assume that that's your best opportunity to grow from here and if so, how should we think about NTI's versus acquisitions as it pertains to that opportunity?

Question: John Royall - JP Morgan - Analyst : And then just a quick follow up on labor hours. Can you talk about how much runway you think there is to continue to take out same store labor hours and just what inning you think you're in in terms of getting those hours down to where you'd like to operate them?

Question: Chuck Grom - Gordon Haskett - Analyst : On the $0.02 drag on the cents per gallon from Fikes, should we think about that wrapping over the next three quarters, or is there something seasonal about this quarter that distorted it? And then on the prepared foods, 150 basis points over a drag, I guess a similar question. How do we think about that wrapping over the next few quarters? In other words, I guess, at what point do you think you can narrow it down to so it's [diminished]

Question: Chuck Grom - Gordon Haskett - Analyst : And then my follow up just on the macro question everybody seems to be focused on, I guess a different angle would be when you dissect your basket, are you seeing trade down, more and more people buying fountain drinks? Is there anything to unpack over the past 4 to 6 weeks given the environment?

Question: Mike Montani - Evercore ISI - Analyst : I just wanted to ask on the private label front, if you could talk about any of the tiering initiatives, how that's going? And then secondly, there's got to be a lot of pressure out there on the independence. So is there additional opportunities for acquisitions, especially in light of the ability to deleverage you've shown so far?