ANKENY, IOWA — The roll-out of a new breakfast bowl product coupled with a price increase on the convenience store’s breakfast pizza helped alleviate some softness in donuts and bakery at Casey’s General Stores, Inc. in the first quarter of fiscal 2019.

Revenue in the prepared food and fountain unit at Casey’s totaled $281 million in the first quarter ended July 31, up 7% from $261.8 million in the same period a year ago.

The company expects growth to continue in the second quarter.

“We just completed the test of several new donut lines that we’re very excited about,” William J. Walljasper, senior vice-president and chief financial officer, said during a Sept. 11 conference call with analysts. “We think they’ll be well received by our consumer. We also will be undertaking the creation of a larger cake donut and rolling that out here coming up in the next quarter as well, and some of those things, I believe, will be great value propositions to help lift that area (donuts and bakery) up.”

Overall, net income at Casey’s totaled $70.2 million in the first quarter, equal to $1.92 per share on the common stock, up 24% from $56.8 million, or $1.48 per share, in the same period a year ago. Total revenue increased 24% to $2,588.4 million from $2,093.7 million.