(Radio Iowa) — The Ankeny-based Casey’s Convenience store chain reported this week that strong sales in several categories led to an increase in earnings in the second quarter compared to last year. Chief executive officer Terry Handley talked about the results in a conference call. “Diluted earnings per share for the first quarter were up over 40 percent to a dollar-80 , compared to a dollar-28 a year ago. The results were primarily driven by increased control on operating expenses, margin gains both at the pump and inside the store, as well as operating 94 additonal stores from the second quarter last year,” Handley says.

Gas prices were higher in the past year, but Handley says they still made good margins. “We achieved an average margin of 20 cents per gallon for the quarter and drove a seven-point-two percent increase in gross profit dollars from the fuel category,” Handley says. “Same store gallons sold in the quarter were down one-point-one percent — due to our optimization efforts in the quarter — as well as softer demand.” The optimization efforts include added bio-diesel and premium fuels that have bigger margins. Handley says the yearly results for gas sales are similar to what they saw in the quarter. “Same store gallons sold year-to-date were down three-tenths of one percent, with an average margin of 20-point-three cents per gallon, resulting in an increase in fuel gross profit dollars over 10 percent to 242-point-one million dollars,” according toe Handley.

He says same-store sales of groceries and merchandise were up two-point-seven percent with an average margin of 32-point-four percent. Handley says the sale of prepare foods were up two-point-two percent with an average margin of 62-point-four percent. He says strategic price increases for food items helped expand the margin in the quarter.