Seeing today’s news about Casey’s General Store’s record earnings made me think back to a January 2015 Business Record Q&A with former CEO Robert Myers in which he shared the company’s strategy for the future, and a delicious reason for its success. What stuck in my head from the interview was how profitable the prepared food business was for Casey’s — think pizza. Here’s an excerpt from the 2015 story: “Gasoline generates 70 percent of our company’s revenue, and 20 percent of our gross profit,” Myers said. “Prepared foods comprise 6 percent of our revenue, but 30 percent of gross profit. We are making far more money on prepared foods, and the importance of that can’t be understated. You will continue to see us growing our prepared foods categories as well as continuing our other initiatives, including 24-hour stores, major remodels and pizza delivery.” New CEO Terry Handley is in lockstep, saying the company aims to increase prepared-food and fountain sales 10.2 percent in fiscal 2017. Of note, though, as some analysts pointed out, the prepared-food and fountain segment had fiscal 2016 sales growth of 8.4 percent, which fell short of the company’s 10.4 percent goal. At any rate, it was a good interview done by former Business Record staff writer, and current Lift IOWA contributing editor Megan VerHelst. You can read the full 2015 story here.