Chicken wings are apparently flying out of the stores at Casey’s.
The convenience-store chain that also wants to be known as a restaurant chain appears to be generating strong sales growth from chicken wings in its earliest markets, giving the brand more confidence as it expands the product to more locations.
Casey’s, which operates about 3,000 locations in 19 states, has freshly-made chicken wings in 900 locations.
The company hopes to have wings in all of its locations within the next two years. Casey’s is currently working to add chicken wings to stores supported by its distribution center in Terre Haute, Indiana. It will then focus on stores supported by another distribution facility in Joplin, Missouri. Casey’s already serves wings out of stations supported by its facility in Ankeny, Iowa.
Darren Rebelez, CEO of Casey’s, told analysts last week that the company is getting new customers from chicken wings. Thirty-eight percent of customers who purchased wings had a wings-only order, which gives the company confidence that this is a new occasion for the chain, and not simply an add-on to its pizza orders.
And those customers who ordered more wings increased the frequency of their prepared food purchases from Casey’s. “It’s a really good pattern for us,” Rebelez said.
Wings are especially popular in the Des Moines area, the market that has had wings the longest. Sales of wings in that market were up 46% last quarter, compared with the same period a year ago. “There’s still a long runway for growth, and we’re very bullish on the category,” Rebelez said.
Casey’s is trying to do the same thing with chicken wings that it has already done with pizza.
Casey’s sells the equivalent to 50 million whole pizzas every year, and it remains a huge sales driver for the chain.
Demand for pizza and wings helped drive Casey’s prepared food transactions last quarter. Transactions for prepared food and dispensed beverages rose more than 100 basis points last quarter.
A typical Casey’s pizza is about $3 less than average in the fast-food pizza sector, which has helped the convenience-store chain gain share from restaurant chains such as Pizza Hut. “We’re in a very good competitive spot,” Rebelez said.
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