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| 7/28/2010 10:39:00 AM | Casey's General Stores expanding into several tri-state cities
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by Doug Graham - Reporter
Iowa-based Casey's General Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: CASY) made business news recently by announcing plans to expand into Arkansas, but the convenience store chain is also expanding its tri-state operations.
New Casey's stores have popped up in Carthage, Neosho, and Pittsburg, Kan., in recent months, part of an aggressive expansion plan that grew the total number of stores in the Midwest-focused chain by 4 percent in 2010.
A press release issued June 15 - the end of Casey's fiscal year - said the company had acquired 37 stores and built 18 new ones in 2010.
"Our pipeline of acquisitions and new store construction sites under review is almost double of what it was at this time last year, and we recently signed purchase agreements for real estate in Arkansas," said President and CEO Robert J. Myers. "We could not be more optimistic about the growth potential of Casey's right now."
Augusta, Kan.-based Zernco Inc. is general contractor for the Pittsburg store. Project superintendent Lon Dominick said it's the first Casey's that Zernco has built, but more are lined up for the future.
"We're starting another one in Pleasantville, Iowa, as a remodel," Dominick said. "We do travel all over the country."
Dominick said he couldn't say how much the Pittsburg store will cost because Casey's provided most of the materials themselves.
Dan Coleman, construction manager for Casey's, declined to comment on the cost of the expansion projects. However, he said building new stores is business as usual for Casey's.
"Well, it's just been growth," Coleman said. "We've been building stores like this for years. We're constantly growing and building replacement stores and new site stores."
Coleman said he didn't know of any special reasoning for the new tri-state stores.
"Different people within the corporation, they'll bring in spots that they think may be good and they investigate them and they just go from there," Coleman said. "I think it's just your turn down there. It kind of floats around the Midwest."
Casey's plans to increase its total stores by another 4-to-6 percent in 2011.
Casey's ended its fourth quarter with 43-cents in basic earnings per share, compared to 31-cents from the same quarter a year ago. For the year, basic earnings per share finished at $2.30, an increase of more than 36 percent compared to last year's $1.60.
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