(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa-based convenience store chain is announcing the closing of a major business deal, its biggest ever. Casey’s General Stores says its buyout of the Fikes Wholesale chain is complete. Fikes was the owner of some 200 CEFCO convenience stores, with most of them in Texas and several dozen across Alabama, Florida and Mississippi.

A news release from Casey’s calls the acquisition a “highly strategic market” for the chain, which takes Casey’s total store count to around 29-hundred.

Founded more than five decades ago, the Ankeny-based Casey’s is the nation’s third-largest convenience store retailer and the fifth-largest pizza chain.