CHICAGO, March,16, 2026 - Anyone in chef’s whites might feel at home inside the buzzing kitchens that landed a Silver Plate this year for Brad Haga, SVP of Prepared Foods and Dispensed Beverages for the Casey’s convenience-store chain.
“You’d see commercial hoods and commercial fryers and pizza ovens and people making dough and big mixers and whatnot," the winner in the Grocery, Convenience, and Specialty category says of the 2,900 facilities whose direction he sets. “And you'd say, ‘Yeah, this looks just like a restaurant to me.
“Then you’d turn left and see aisles of candy and snacks and hundreds of non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks," he continues. "So, yeah, parts of our offering are different.”
But not different enough to keep units of Casey’s, a full-scale convenience retailer, off lists of the most popular pizzerias in parts of the Midwest. Only Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, and Papa John’s have more ovens in use on a typical day.
The company did not break out how much of the $1.61 billion it took in last fiscal year for prepared foods and dispensed beverages was generated by pizza, but most estimates put Casey's fifth or sixth in rankings of the major chains by annual revenues.
Casey’s made-from-scratch pies—sold whole and by the slice—are the foundation of a foodservice program that’s intended to take the chain’s avid customers through the day.
"You can show up in the morning and get a slice of breakfast pizza up until about midday, and then from there your traditional pepperoni, sausage, or cheese slices would be available,” says Haga. “Then on the weekends when you're purchasing for a party or for your family, we're pretty big in the whole-pie business, with anything from specialty meat pizzas to our famous Taco Pizza.”
His personal favorite is a pie with pepperoni, hot sausage, and jalapenos.
Patrons can also order a burger or hot sandwiches, including chicken and pork tenderloin versions.
"We have been pretty maniacal about trying to make everything as good as the pizza,” says Haga. “That's kind of our mantra.”
What customers won’t find are roller dogs, the fatty franks that have become a symbol of c-stores' aversion to stocking fresh ready-to-eat foods.
Casey’s decided 42 years ago to break from the pack by introducing pizzas made entirely from scratch. Many of the chain’s units are located in communities of 20,000 or less, where dining-out options are limited. The chain wanted customers to come for the food and experience, not because they had few alternatives.
The emphasis on quality and freshness also ratchets up the brand’s need for talent. "It's okay to do things that are hard in the kitchen—I'm okay with that,” says Haga.
To address the challenge, Casey’s has packed his department with restaurant vets—unlike himself, who came to Casey’s from the foodservice operations of 7-Eleven.
“Within my team, we've got folks with a lot of QSR and other restaurant experience, including fast casual,” says Haga. “We've got chefs, we've got R&D food scientists. To have food as good as restaurants, we need to act like a restaurant, with restaurant people.”
Casey’s CEO is Darren Rebelez, a former president of IHOP.
With that caliber of talent aboard, “I think we could maybe do another thing in addition to pizza very, very well,” he says, without giving any hints as to what that next blockbuster might be. “Everything can't be hard. So there are going to be a select few things we'll consider."
Despite that cautious approach to product development, Haga cites Casey’s speed in getting a new item to market as a point of difference from the big restaurant chains. The c-store operation goes through the same checklist as a quick-service restaurant brand might, from “Can this work in a store?” to “Will it make money?” The process is just as rigorous, but quicker.
"We want to be careful about not biting off more than we can chew,” says Haga. “We do have the complexity of also selling fuel.”
As Managing Editor for IFMA The Food Away from Home Association, Romeo is responsible for generating the group's news and feature content. He brings more than 40 years of experience in covering restaurants to the position.