The Italian-immigrant coal miner's family that grew a Des Moines corner store into Ankeny's Fortune 500 pizza-and-fuel giant, Casey's.
The family's Iowa story begins in 1935, when Domenic Lamberti — an Italian immigrant and former coal miner — opened a coal-and-ice-delivery business on the north side of Des Moines, at Broadway and NE 14th Street.
His son Donald F. Lamberti left his accounting studies at Drake University in 1960 to run the store when his father fell ill. In 1967 Kurvin C. Fish — the salesman who sold Lamberti his gasoline — persuaded him to buy an Ames-area oil company with four Square Deal service stations, and the first Casey's store opened in Boone, Iowa, in 1968.
Casey's is a publicly traded Fortune 500 company (NASDAQ: CASY); its financials are public in SEC filings. The Lamberti family's personal holdings are not separately disclosed.
From a single Boone store in 1968, Casey's grew into a Fortune 500 company and a fixture of small-town Iowa and the Midwest. Its headquarters anchor Ankeny's business community, and its kitchens have made it one of the country's biggest pizza sellers.
Casey's is based in Ankeny, Iowa. Fortune 500 (NASDAQ: CASY), ~2,950 stores in 19 states, headquartered in Ankeny
1968.
Domenic Lamberti — Italian immigrant and former coal miner; started the family's Des Moines store (1935)
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