Casey's General Stores (NASDAQ:CASY) held its first-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday. Below is the complete transcript from the call.
This transcript is brought to you by Benzinga APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/ for a consultation.
Access the full call at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/7bc7oo74/
Watch the full earnings call below:
Summary
Casey's General Stores reported a strong first quarter with diluted EPS rising to $7.37, up 28% year-over-year, and net income increasing by 27% to $274 million.
The company generated $485 million in EBITDA, marking a 17% increase from the prior year, with significant contributions from prepared food and dispensed beverages.
Strategic initiatives include the integration of the FIKES acquisition and remodeling of legacy CEFCO stores, which temporarily impacted same-store sales but are expected to yield long-term benefits.
Total revenue for the quarter reached $5.68 billion, reflecting a 24.3% increase driven by higher inside sales and retail fuel prices.
Future outlook remains positive with continued focus on operational efficiency, store remodels, and strategic growth, targeting 120 new store units for the fiscal year.
Management emphasized the company's competitive advantage in prepared foods and maintained confidence in ongoing growth and strategic initiatives.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the first quarter FY 2027 Casey's General Stores earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again.
Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Sam James, Senior Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations. Sir, please go ahead.
Sam James, Senior Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations
Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss the results of our first quarter ended July 31, 2026. My name is Sam James, Senior Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations. With me today are Darren Rebelez, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Steve Bramlage, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I will remind you that certain statements made by us during this investor call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
These forward-looking statements include any statements relating to the potential impact of the FIKES transaction; expectations of future periods; possible or assumed future results of operations, financial condition, liquidity and related sources or needs; the company's supply chain; business and integration strategies, plans and synergies; growth opportunities; and performance. There are a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements, including but not limited to the integration of the recent FIKES acquisition; our ability to execute our strategic plan or realize the synergies from the strategic plan; the impact and duration of conflicts in oil-producing regions and related governmental action; as well as other risks, uncertainties and factors which are described in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q as filed with the SEC and available on our website. Any forward-looking statements made during this call reflect our current views as of today with respect to future events, and Casey's disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. A reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures referenced in this call, as well as a detailed breakdown of our operating expense increase for the first quarter, can be found on our website at www.caseys.com under the Investor Relations link. With that said, I'd like to turn the call over to Darren to discuss our first quarter results.
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Sam, and good morning, everyone. Before we go into further detail on our outstanding first quarter performance, I'd like to thank the entire Casey's team for their hard work during our 100 Days of Summer and for the excellent job they did serving our guests. I'm also proud of the positive impact we're making on the communities we serve as students head back to school. Our annual Cash for Classrooms giving campaign raised funds for grants that will support schools, students and teachers.
This year, with the help of our guests, team members and supplier partner Coca-Cola, we raised over $1.8 million. That sets a new record and reflects our shared commitment to invest in the future of the communities we call home. We're through the first quarter of our fiscal 2027–2029 three-year strategic plan that we laid out in June, where we highlighted Casey's Advantage Convenience QSR flywheel with our three lines of business under one operating cost structure.
Our strong first quarter result is yet another proof point that our Advantage model is working as we continue to gain share both inside and outside the store. Now let's discuss the results from the quarter. Diluted EPS finished at $7.37 per share, up 28% from the prior year. Net income was $274 million, an increase of 27% from the prior year. The company generated $485 million in EBITDA, 17% higher than the prior year and up 40% on a two-year stack basis.
Inside the store, prepared food and dispensed beverages remained strong. PF and DB transactions were up over 100 basis points, driving PF and DB units up nearly 4% versus the same period in the prior year, as guests continue to gravitate toward our abundant offering, compelling value and continued innovations such as our Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza LTO. Inside margin expansion was driven primarily by prepared food and dispensed beverage mix. In the forecourt, the capabilities we developed over the past couple of years help us navigate a volatile environment.
Fuel margin was nearly 48 cents per gallon while same-store gallons were roughly flat. One note on the quarter: as part of our integration of the FIKES acquisition, approximately 1% of our total store base had a planned disruption associated with remodeling legacy CEFCO stores to Casey's. As a result, same-store sales both inside and outside the store faced a slight headwind. Despite this, we still posted strong same-store results for the quarter and remain ahead of schedule on our integration efforts.
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. Now, with that disclaimer out of the way, I'd like to now go over our results and share some of the details in each of the categories. Inside, same-store sales were up 3.2% for the quarter, or 7.7% on a two-year stack basis. Gross profit margin for the quarter was 42.2%, up 30 basis points from the prior year.
Prepared food and dispensed beverage led the way. The same-store sales were up 4.8%, or 10.7% on a two-year stack basis, with a gross profit margin of 59.3%. The majority of same-store sales growth was from traffic with minimal pricing. This was highlighted by great performance in whole pies with units up nearly double digits in the quarter. Same-store grocery and general merchandise sales were up 2.7%, or 6.5% on a two-year stack basis, with a gross profit margin of 35.6%.
Energy drinks and nicotine alternatives continue to outperform the category with double-digit growth. The alcohol category, specifically beer, was a headwind during the quarter. On the fuel side, same-store gallons sold were down slightly at 0.3% but were positive 1.4% on a two-year stack basis with a fuel margin of 47.8 cents per gallon. The Mid-Continent region saw an approximate 6% decline this quarter according to OPIS fuel gallons sold data, indicating that our play is working and we continue to gain market share and drive guest traffic.
In the quarter, same-store operating expense, excluding credit card fees, increased 5%. Steve will provide some of the specific puts and takes related to operating expense changes, but I'm extremely proud of our operations team to be able to meet the increased food demand without meaningfully increasing store labor hours. The same-store labor hours were roughly flat for the quarter. I'd now like to turn the call over to Steve to discuss the financial results from the first quarter.
Steve Bramlage, Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Darren, and good morning. Before I begin, I also want to share my appreciation for our team members' hard work executing a plan during our busy summer months. It takes the entire organization's buy-in to be able to generate such strong results, which are not easy to achieve. Total revenue for the quarter was $5.68 billion. That's an increase of $1.11 billion, or 24.3%, from the prior year, due primarily to higher inside sales and a higher retail price of fuel.
Higher fuel gallons sold also contributed. The results were favorably impacted by operating approximately 2% more stores on a year-over-year basis. Total inside sales for the quarter were $1.78 billion. That's an increase of $94 million, or 5.6%, from the prior year. For the quarter, prepared food and dispensed beverage sales rose by $34 million to $493 million, an increase of 7.4%, and grocery and general merchandise sales increased by $60 million to $1.28 billion, an increase of 4.9%.
Inside same-store sales had an approximate 25 basis point headwind from the Fikes construction. Retail fuel sales were up $991 million in the quarter as the average retail price of fuel rose 33% from $3.00 to $3.99 per gallon, and total gallons sold increased by two and a half percent. The same-store gallons had an approximately 50 basis point headwind from the Fikes construction. We define gross profit as revenue less cost of goods sold but excluding depreciation and amortization.
Casey's had total gross profit of $1.24 billion in the quarter, an increase of $127 million, or 11.4%, from the prior year and up 29.7% on a two-year stack basis. This is driven by both higher inside gross profit of $44.3 million, or 6.3%, as well as higher fuel gross profit of $73.4 million, or 19.6%. Inside gross profit margin was 42.2%, and that's up 30 basis points from a year ago. The increase is primarily due to mix shift and solid cost of goods management.
Also during the first quarter, we made a modest change in accounting for inside cost of goods sold related to internal distribution costs. That had no net impact on inside margin in the aggregate, but it did create a slight tailwind to the PF&DB margin and a slight headwind to the grocery and GM margin. We believe this change better reflects the true cost of goods sold between the two categories. Prepared food and dispensed beverage gross profit margin was 59.3%.
That's up 130 basis points from prior year. Cheese was $1.93 per pound for the quarter compared to $2.11 per pound last year. It's a decrease of 9%, or an approximate 45 basis point benefit to the margin, along with the aforementioned distribution cost reclass. These two items accounted for all of the margin change in the quarter. The grocery and general merchandise gross profit margin was 35.6%, a decrease of 30 basis points from the prior year, and that change is completely attributable to the distribution cost reclass.
Fuel margin for the quarter was 47.8 cents per gallon, up 6.8 cents per gallon from the prior year and, sequentially, about one penny stronger than the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, which reflected the beginning of the Middle East conflict and the related volatility in global petroleum markets. Total operating expenses were up 8%, or $55.9 million, in the quarter. Approximately 2% of the total operating expense increase was due to unit growth, as we operated 64 more stores than the prior year.
Same-store credit card fees added approximately 1.5% to the increase, primarily due to the previously mentioned higher retail prices per gallon. Same-store employee expenses accounted for approximately 1% of the increase due primarily to increases in labor rates, as same-store labor hours were roughly flat. Insurance, primarily same-store health care insurance, was responsible for approximately 1% of the increase. In addition, same-store repairs and maintenance and same-store utilities collectively made up approximately 1% of the increase.
Net interest expense was $22.1 million in the quarter. That's down $4.8 million versus the prior year, which is primarily due to deleveraging associated with the Fikes transaction. Depreciation in the quarter was $116 million. That's up $7 million versus the prior year, primarily due to operating more stores. The effective tax rate for the quarter was 21.1% compared to the prior year of 22.7%. That decrease was driven by an increase in tax benefits that were recognized on share-based awards.
Our financial flexibility remains excellent. On July 31 we had total available liquidity of $1.4 billion. Also, our credit facility debt to EBITDA ratio was 1.5 times for the quarter. Net cash generated by operating activities of $384 million less purchases of property and equipment of $194 million resulted in the company generating $190 million in free cash flow compared to generating $262 million in the prior year. The decrease in free cash flow is due in large part to the planned increase in capital expenditures from the CEFCO store remodels.
At the September meeting, the Board of Directors voted to maintain the quarterly dividend at $0.65 per share. During the first quarter we repurchased approximately $46 million in shares. While we're off to a great start to the year, consistent with our past practice, we plan to update annual guidance on our second quarter earnings call when we are through the seasonally largest time of the year. Our results for August were as same-store volumes both inside and outside the store were consistent with our first quarter results and within our annual guidance ranges.
Fuel CPG is in the low $0.40 per gallon. Current cheese costs are slightly favorable versus the prior year. We expect the second quarter operating expense increase to be similar to the first quarter, and that's partially driven by the increase in retail fuel prices as compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2026. I'll now turn the call back over to Darren.
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Steve. As we just wrapped up our first quarter into the new plan, I'm as excited as ever about our progress. Our food team is doing a tremendous job. Whole pies have continued their strong momentum in the quarter. Guests are flocking to the Casey's Rewards platform, as we're now over 11 million members. We believe our abundant and value-oriented food offering is not only a differentiator driving inside traffic, but is also driving traffic to the pump.
This, coupled with our fuel team doing an excellent job balancing fuel margin and gallons during an uncertain environment, has yielded great results. This is our three-legged business model in action. During fiscal year 2026, we remodeled approximately 50 CEFCO stores to Casey's. In the first quarter of fiscal year 27, we've remodeled 24 more stores. We're extremely excited about the results we're seeing, as the average PF&DB lift at the stores that were remodeled to Casey's has been approximately 30% versus the results of the same period prior to remodel.
While we're busy with CEFCO conversions, that has not stopped us from continuing to grow the store base, as we are on track to meet our 120-store unit goal for the fiscal year. Operational efficiency is another key pillar of the strategic plan. As we discussed at Investor Day, we expanded our continuous improvement efforts to include both the store and the enterprise as a whole. We're off to a great start, as the team has completed a number of initiatives with many more on track for completion during the fiscal year both at the store and throughout the organization.
Overall, I'm very proud of the team's execution of the plan. We look forward to building on the momentum we have going throughout the fiscal year and beyond. We will now take your questions.
OPERATOR
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11. Again, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question only. One moment while we compile our Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Edward Kelly with Wells Fargo. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Edward Kelly, Analyst at Wells Fargo
Good morning, everyone. I wanted to start just on fuel margins. I was hoping that you can maybe talk about the trend in fuel margin during Q1. I think you said you had a very strong start last quarter, which I think a lot of us kind of assumed that maybe that was in the 50s. Just curious what the rest of the quarter looked like. And then the underlying dynamics that drove that really robust Q4 performance and strong start. Just curious as to the sustainability of those dynamics through the quarter. And then just lastly related to all this, as you think about your mid-40s sort of margin guide, is anything you're seeing out there currently that sort of raises question about that at all? Maybe talk about breakevens as part of that. Thank you.
Steve Bramlage, Chief Financial Officer
Hi, good morning, this is Steve. I'll address the first one on fuel margin during the course of the quarter. We certainly did enter the beginning of this fiscal year in a good position, certainly given the experience that we had in the fourth quarter. But I would say honestly, the quarter was volatile is the word I would describe with fuel margins. There were days when it was in the 60s, there were days when it was in the 30s. Most days it was in the 40s.
And, you know, to some extent, depending on the headlines that you read about in the paper and social media, there would be a corresponding move in fuel margin over the next day or two. So I don't think it's possible to really describe a solid trend during the course of the quarter. The floor for sure was higher, which is what we saw in the fourth quarter of last year because of the conflict. That was unchanged, but it really moved around quite a bit based on headlines as we went through the quarter.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Greg Milik with Evercore ISI. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Greg Milik, Analyst at Evercore ISI
Hi, thanks, guys. I'd love to follow up on the trends you saw through the quarter, particularly with how much of the comp decel in grocery and prepared food might have been people getting squeezed in terms of cash they had, filling up the gas tank at the same time. Anything about that and the trends since the quarter as well? Thanks.
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Greg, this is Darren. I'll go ahead and take that one. Yeah, I would say that the trends that we saw in first quarter were similar to what we've seen over the last several quarters. A couple of points. One is that the lower income consumers are being slightly more impacted than the other income cohorts. If you look at our business, all three income cohorts that we measure had positive growth in the quarter. So I'll caveat it with that. But I would say that more of the impact we saw on the grocery and general merchandise side is really driven by category trends versus demographic trends.
And what I mean by that is if you look at the three areas where we had some softness is beer, snacks, and cigarettes. And those categories have all been challenged for different reasons. That's an industry-wide phenomenon. We're not immune to that. On the beer side, we were able to make up for a good part of that with our liquor business. Ready-to-drink cocktails in particular were up over 30% in the quarter. So we saw some good strength there. Not enough to overcome the drag on beer.
Snacks, I think we've talked about this before. We've seen a lot of price action taken from the national brands which has put some pressure on there.
Steve Bramlage, Chief Financial Officer
And cigarettes has been a multi-decade trend. On the other side, on grocery and general merchandise, real strength in nicotine alternatives, up 47% in the quarter. Energy continues to perform well at 12%, and non-alcoholic beverages overall were a strong contributor. So overall, I'd say the trends are what they are. And then lastly, when I look at a two-year stack basis, grocery and general merchandise up 6.5% in an environment like this, I think is pretty solid performance.
OPERATOR
Thank you, and one moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Tom Palmer with J.P. Morgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Tom Palmer, Analyst at J.P. Morgan
Good morning, and thanks for the question. I wanted to maybe just follow up on the CEFCO commentary in terms of the remodels. You noted 25 basis point inside same-store sales headwind and 50 on the fuel gallons. How did this compare to kind of what you had seen on past remodels? And then as we look out here over the next couple of quarters, should we be thinking about a similar kind of headwind, or does the lift from the remodeled stores start to more than offset, let's say, any headwind from the disruption during the remodels?
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, this is Darren. You know, on the remodels, this is to be expected when we do heavy lifting. Why you didn't see this in the first quarter or fourth quarter of last year was there was a cohort of stores that already had kitchens in them that we were able to convert in just a matter of days. So there was really very minimal impact to the performance of the business while those were being remodeled. This next tranche of stores that we started this past quarter are impacted anywhere from four to six weeks, and so that puts a pretty significant drag.
They're not closed the entire time, but they're closed for a good part of it and then partially under construction for part of it. So there's a lot of disruption that puts a drag. It is not anything different than what we would normally see in a remodel of other acquisitions. Probably the biggest difference is the CEFCO stores tend to be higher-volume stores versus others that we've acquired in the past, and so it has more of a disproportionate impact, and there's just more of them that we're remodeling.
So that said, we've been very happy with the results coming out of the remodels. And so, at some point, to your point, Tom, these numbers will inflect, but that's probably later in the fiscal year. I wouldn't expect to see that in second quarter, probably not anything meaningfully in third quarter. It'll probably be more fourth quarter where you start to see that inflection point.
Steve Bramlage, Chief Financial Officer
And I would probably just add to that: all of this was countenanced in our annual guidance. We knew all this was going to happen, and so none of this is a surprise. And I think it's exactly the impact and the timing that we would have expected.
OPERATOR
Thank you, and one moment for our next question. Our next question will be from the line of Bonnie Herzog with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Bonnie Herzog, Analyst at Goldman Sachs
All right, thank you. Good morning, everyone. I had a question on OPEX, which has remained elevated over the last several years, excuse me. So could you provide a little more color on the FQ1 drivers and how you expect the cadence for OPEX to trend from here? And then, curious if you could touch on how much of the increase in the quarter was tied to the new stores or CEFCO, maybe labor, credit card fees, or other inflationary pressures. And really just trying to think about how we should think about normalized OPEX growth from here over the long term.
Thank you.
Steve Bramlage, Chief Financial Officer
Hi, Bonnie. Hey, good morning. This is Steve. In terms of the waterfall that I think will end up on the webpage, as we've done in the past, to get to the total OPEX change of the 8% in the quarter, about a point and a half of that was same-store employee expense. So think of kind of 3% wage rate offset by flat hours gets you kind of a point and a half. About 2% would have been what we would kind of broadly bucket as same-store operations. So that would be repairs and maintenance, utilities, insurance—we're self-insured for our health care—that would go into that 2% bucket.
New units, to your point, is about 2% all by itself, just the wrap of new units. Credit card fees, same-store credit card fees, would be another point and a half, almost two points. And then you’ve got kind of everything else in the 1% bucket, which would be technology and supplies and some miscellaneous things. We continue to believe the best way to think about OPEX on a long-term basis is consistent with the algorithm. Right? We firmly believe we can grow operating expense at a slower rate than we're going to grow EBITDA over the medium and long term.
I think that's imminently achievable for us. And for this year, I'd just probably point you back to—we obviously haven't updated the guide for the year—but the squeeze math for the rest of the year: if you go back to what we experienced in the fourth quarter of last year, you'll get less OPEX growth on a year-over-year basis this year to land the plane within that range. And especially if you take the fact second quarter is going to look similar to first because of the credit card fee dynamic, you should be able to land second half of the year pretty close.
OPERATOR
Thank you, and one moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Mark Cardin with UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Matthew Rothway, Analyst at UBS
Hi, this is Matthew Rothway on for Mark. Thank you for taking our question. So I was wondering if you could touch on the competitive landscape and promotional landscape a little bit. Are you seeing any impact from price investments from some of the mass merchants on your inside sales or grocery and gen merch, and any shift from kind of your convenience store peers and competition in pricing?
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
Hey Matthew, this is Darren. Really, we haven't seen any unusual or different activity from the C-store competitive side. I think that's a reflection of the more challenged environment that they find themselves in relative to us with a big prepared foods business. But yeah, we really haven't seen much of that there. On the pizza side of the business, it's been a mixed bag. I think there's been some more promotional activity. But again, I'd remind you of how we approach the business.
We have our own degree of promotional activity, but our starting point is far lower in price versus the national brands. We're close to, on average, about $3 for a single-topping pizza below what a national brand would be priced at just line pricing. And then, also as a reminder, about half of our stores don't even have a national brand pizza competitor. So we're really in a very good competitive spot. And what we did see over the quarter was that similar to the dynamic that we described at Investor Day—where we've taken minimal price while the pizza QSR segment has taken more price—we saw that dynamic in first quarter continue, and that gap that we had from our pricing in prepared foods to theirs actually widened even further. So we think we saw that in the numbers with the unit growth and the dollar growth as well in PF and DB.
OPERATOR
Thank you, and one moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Chuck Sarankoski with North Coast Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Chuck Sarankoski, Analyst at North Coast Research
Good morning, everyone. Great quarter. I'd like to return to the nicotine category. It's shrinking on the cigarette side. Can you talk a little bit about the—I can't even think of the name right now—the artificial cigarettes, and then what it means for the inside merchandising as you change space allocation or need to use other products to get that traffic back?
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Chuck, this is Darren. And they're called nicotine alternatives. And so, yeah, what we've seen over the course of the last couple of years is, as that secular decline in combustible cigarettes continues, nicotine alternatives are starting to replace that lost volume. Now, it's not a one-for-one yet—it hasn't quite grown that fast—but if you think about how the categories are trending, with cigarettes down a percent or two on a sales basis and down, you know, call it 5 or 6% on a unit basis, and nicotine alternatives up 47% in the quarter, you can see where that change is going to come here soon.
From a space allocation standpoint, I think that's where our merchandising team has done a really good job, getting ahead of this. And we talked about this on previous calls: we reset those nicotine back bars to reduce the combustible cigarette space to make more room for nicotine alternatives. And that move a couple of years ago was—I think we were one of the first in the industry to do that—and it has really accrued to our benefit. And I think that's one of the reasons that you see the strength in that category today in our stores.
And we just did another adjustment this past fiscal year to give even more space to the nicotine alternatives. So the category overall is definitely shifting in favor of those alternatives, and we expect to be a leader in that space.
OPERATOR
Thank you, and one moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of [UNKNOWN] with Stephens. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
UNKNOWN Analyst at Stephens
Good morning, and thanks for the question here. Just a quick one from me. I think you mentioned your cheese cost at about $1.93 per pound. Was just wondering if you could give us how much you're covered as you're looking out here—how much you're covered and how many quarters you are covered out.
Steve Bramlage, Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, good morning, this is Steve. I'll address that. We are about 80%, eight-zero percent, covered through really into the first quarter of next fiscal year. And generally, certainly for the remainder of this fiscal year, the three out quarters, we would be covered, and a modest tailwind to margin each of those three quarters.
OPERATOR
Thank you, and one moment for our next question. Our next question will be from the line of Corey Torlo with Jefferies. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Corey Torlo, Analyst at Jefferies
Great. Thanks, and good morning.
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Corey Torlo, Analyst at Jefferies
Thanks. I have a two-parter. So first, I would love an update on chicken wings; and then second is on M&A. I think you've placed recently a little bit more emphasis on Texas. Could you maybe talk a little bit about the strategy within that market, please? Thank you very much.
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Corey, this is Darren. Yeah, with respect to wings, wings are performing well. We've been really happy with the results so far. We're still in 850 stores, and we'll start rolling out the next tranche of stores here later this month. We didn't do any rollouts over the 100 days of summer just to give our stores a chance during their biggest peak period to execute at a high level. So we'll start those now, and we'll start getting those open probably in early third quarter.
Wings, like I said, have performed well. One of the encouraging things is about 38% of guests that have purchased wings have had a wings-only order. And if you recall when we talked about this, strategically, we were looking to achieve another night of the week or another occasion in addition to pizza. And so those wings-only orders really represent that incremental occasion. And so the folks that have had a wings-only order have increased their frequency of prepared food purchases overall by about 30%.
So it's a really good fact pattern for us. We're still early stages and still growing. As an example, in the Des Moines DMA, which we've had the wings in the longest, we were up 46% in the quarter over prior year. So there's still a long runway for growth there and very bullish on that category.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And one moment for our next question. And our next question will come from the line of Kelly Banya with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Kelly Banya, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking our question. Steve and Darren, wanted to just go back to the beer, snacks and cigarette commentary and the impact on the grocery comps. Just curious, a little bit more color there when that kind of weaker trend started. And are you seeing just more of a unit slowdown or is there a trade down to lower price points or smaller pack sizes? And do you or some of the vendors have some plans to promote these categories through the rest of the year?
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Kelly, I'll go ahead and take that. And you've got something different going on in each of those. I'd say I'll just start with cigarettes because that's the easiest—that's been for 30, 40 years, that trend. So nothing new to report in cigarettes other than it's just continuing to be under pressure. And like I said, I feel better about that category, the total nicotine category now, than I have in a long time because of nicotine alternatives and the growth rate we're seeing there and the margin profile.
As a reminder, the margin in nicotine alternatives is double what it is in combustible cigarettes. So that math ends up working out pretty favorably on a gross profit dollar standpoint over the long term. Snacks is something that we've probably experienced for the last couple of years where the national brand manufacturers have just taken a lot of price, primarily in chips. And so you see a lot of pressure in that category. And while there's been some price action that they're taking on take-home packages, they're not taking that on immediate consumption packages, which is the bulk of what we sell.
So they just priced themselves out of the market, frankly. Now what we're doing about that is we've leaned heavier into our private label offering. And so we're seeing really good growth in those same categories in our private label products. So we think we're not losing traffic necessarily, but the retails are lower and so it doesn't have quite the impact on the sales line as it might otherwise have. And beer—beer has been a category that's really struggled for the last couple of years.
I think it started off with Budweiser and their social media snafu and then it's just kind of hung in there like that. The one bright spot is super premium beer with Michelob Ultra. But outside of that it's been soft. What we've really done is we have made sure that we're priced appropriately. We are looking at space allocation in the category to make sure we're appropriately spaced and then leaning a little bit heavier on the liquor category. And like I mentioned earlier on the call, ready-to-drink cocktails up 30 plus percent.
So that's been a good offset and that's a little bit more on trend with where the consumers are going.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Our next question will be from the line of Brad Thomas with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Brad Thomas, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets
Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask about the same store gallons. I know it's tracking within your annual guidance. This was the first quarter of being negative after about six quarters of being positive. Just curious what you were seeing in the quarter. How much of the decline is the being a tougher comparison that you're up against and then to what extent is fewer gas sales trickling through to the inside comp. Not sure if you've been able to look at that yet.
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah Brad, I'll go ahead and take that. Just on the same store gallons on the trend, a few things I'd point out. One is down 30 basis points. So your annual guide was down a percent to plus a percent. So we're talking about pretty nuanced numbers there. Point number one, point number two, as Steve described with the CEFCO remodel model, that's about a 50 basis point drag on overall gallons. So, you know, if you net that out you're probably up 20 basis points.
So that—again nuanced—but probably right in the middle of the annual guide range. Now on a two-year stack basis we were cycling a 1.7% same store gallon number and to put that in perspective, so we're on a two-year stack, we're up 1.4%. The OPIS Mid-Continent region, which is where we operate primarily, over that same two-year period is down 10%. So we've taken significant share in fuel and, you know, 20 basis points here, 30 basis points there doesn't concern me when the overall trend is where it is.
Steve Bramlage, Chief Financial Officer
And, you know, from a consumer behavior standpoint on fuel, with the higher fuel prices we're seeing exactly the type of behavior that we would expect to see: fewer gallons per trip, but more trips made, which ultimately accrues to our benefit if we have more people coming to the store. People are trading out of premium and mid-grade and opting for regular or higher ethanol blends of fuel. The higher ethanol blends of fuel carry a higher margin for us than clear gasoline.
So while these trends kind of ebb and flow, it's very consistent with prior periods of higher gas prices and ultimately works out to our benefit.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Christina Katai with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Christina Katai, Analyst at Deutsche Bank
Hi, good morning and thanks for taking the question. I had a follow up to Grocery, Darren. You've highlighted strong growth in energy, non-alcoholic beverages and nicotine alternatives. But obviously snacks remain challenged. So do you think the weakness in snacks is entirely a function of pricing and value perception? And are you starting to see evidence maybe of a more durable shift in consumer behavior? Obviously there is a shift towards healthier consumption patterns or also any GLP-1 usage that you might be seeing.
And if that is warranting any kind of a revision of how you're thinking about maybe what the inside of the box needs to look like maybe two to three years from now. Thank you.
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, thanks Christina. And certainly we keep an eye on that. But when I look at what's happening in the category, and as I mentioned before on snacks in particular, national brand chips down around 8%, Casey's chips up 16% units. So if it was a GLP-1 impact, I don't think we'd see the strength in our own private brand. We'd just see overall negative trend in the category. So I can't put my finger on the idea that it's a GLP-1 type issue. That being said, there's certainly a trend of people leaning more towards protein-heavy snacks and foods in general.
We are seeing that and our merchandising team's done a nice job of bringing in more protein-dense snacks and other foods to satisfy that need. And we are seeing good growth in those. They're just smaller categories so they really don't move the needle as much on the overall G&GM category. But they are growing well and we are staying attuned to that trend. I just don't see enough of it yet to make any more dramatic shifts at this point.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And one moment for our next question. Our next question will be from the line of Bobby Griffin with Raymond James. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Bobby Griffin, Analyst at Raymond James
Hey guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question, Dan. I wanted to touch on just the Texas opportunity further. And I think you called out on the remodel stores for Fikes, they're performing well, but can you dive into a little bit more like what those stores are kind of showing versus maybe corporate average once they get your Casey's pizza in there? I think Fikes were higher performing stores. So is that translating into a higher, you know, just a larger pizza business?
And is that indicative of what maybe the opportunity could be as you open up, you know, new-to-industry or, you know, you do tuck-ins? You guys completed a small tuck-in in Texas, you know, after the quarter end.
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Bobby, you know, like we said, the performance of the CEFCO stores has been fantastic so far coming out of the remodels. And you know what I'd say is most encouraging is that these stores were high volume. They were generally higher volume than our average. Now, not in prepared foods, but their prepared foods business was probably the best that we've ever acquired. I don't think there's been anything that was even close to how CEFCO was performing in prepared foods prior to acquisition.
And so when we can come in and take a store already doing well in prepared foods and layer our program on top of it and see the types of lifts that we're seeing—30 plus percent year over year—it's really encouraging. And even in the proof-of-concept stores that had the full Casey's assortment for over a year, they're still comping positively and so we feel really good about what we see. We've also had some new-to-industry stores that we built down in Texas over the last year since we've been down there, and those are performing very well.
So we really like Texas overall. As you know, this has been a goal of ours to get into that state for a while now. The two acquisitions we've done and now a third coming have been very good to us and the new-to-industries are doing well also. And as I have looked at Texas, you know, outside of the big four cities of Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, the rest of that entire state is Casey's country. And from our perspective, it's got a long, long runway for growth.
OPERATOR
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will be from the line of Daniel Guglielmo with Capital One Securities. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Daniel Guglielmo, Analyst at Capital One Securities
Hi everyone. Thank you for taking my question. Kind of a follow up on kind of state strength. You all have stores in 19 different states. If you think about customers at the state level, are there certain states or areas of the country where you're seeing a stronger consumer or weaker ones?
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
Daniel, I'd have to look—I probably have to look a little closer to try to answer that question. Nothing jumps out at me. Probably one example that we have seen is between Illinois and Indiana on the border where Indiana has suspended gas tax in that state and Illinois hasn't done anything similar. And so we're seeing a little bit of weakness along the border in Illinois from a fuel perspective, but we're also seeing a corresponding strength on the other side of the border in our Indiana store side.
I'd say it's kind of a wash, just guests kind of playing an arbitrage game. But outside of that, I couldn't specifically point to any one state doing better or worse than the others. I mean, they always perform a little bit differently, but nothing that really jumps out that concerns me.
Steve Bramlage, Chief Financial Officer
I think it's worth reinforcing that if you just think about part of the strategic thesis that we tried to highlight at the Investor Day, the geographic footprint we have remains in some of the lowest cost of living parts of the country. And so broadly speaking, the money that our consumers earn goes further than it would certainly for consumers who are similarly situated on the coasts. And we feel like that just accrues to our benefit for sure. And I think that is a very fair statement for the vast majority of the communities that we serve and continue to serve.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone. Our next question comes from the line of Jacob Akin Phillips with Melius Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Sam Bardon, Analyst
Good morning. Thanks so much for taking our question. This is Sam Bardon for Jacob. I was just wondering if we could zoom out a little and touch on M&A as a whole. Have you seen the industry change at all in the last several quarters? And then also just wondering if you could remind us on philosophically just how you see M&A contributing to your 120 new unit growth target by the end of the fiscal year. Thank you.
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Sam, I'd say the M&A environment is still really good, and that's a reflection of the challenging environment that the industry finds itself in, particularly the small operators. And so I wouldn't say it's changed. I'd say it's still consistent, maybe even gotten a little better from a buyer's perspective. And multiples have stayed relatively flat. But the EBITDA that that's multiplied by is not. And the EBITDA, even with higher fuel margins, tends to go backwards for these smaller operators.
So we find ourselves paying a lower absolute price for some of these assets, even though the multiples are about the same and consistent with our guidance. Every year we go into that giving a number of stores we'll add in the fiscal year. This year it's 120. We go into that assuming half of that will come from new-to-industry builds, half that will come from the small deal M&A. And that's exactly how we see it playing out this year, give or take a couple.
OPERATOR
Thank you. And I would now like to hand the conference back over to Darren Rebelez for closing remarks.
Darren Rebelez, Chief Executive Officer
All right. Thank you for taking time today to join us on the call. Before we go, I want to thank our team members once again for all their hard work this quarter. Have a great day.
OPERATOR
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. And you may now disconnect everyone. Have a great day.
Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.
Login to comment