Circle K
Circle K Stores, Inc. is an American chain of convenience stores headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and owned by the Canadian multinational operator Alimentation Couche-Tard, Inc., based in Laval, Quebec. Founded in 1951 in El Paso, Texas, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 1990 and went through several owners, before being acquired by Alimentation Couche-Tard in 2003. As of February 2020, Circle K has 9,799 stores in North America, 2,697 stores in Europe, and an additional 2,380 stores operating under franchise agreements worldwide.
In 2015, Circle K unveiled a new logo and brand identity, and Couche-Tard announced that it would deploy the brand globally, including Canada, Europe, and the United States.
Overview
Since the 1980s, Circle K has been the largest chain of company-owned and operated convenience stores in the United States. With 7,230 stores overall in the United States, Circle K is second to 7-Eleven's 9,348 stores. As of February 2020, there are more than 14,800 stores with the Circle K brand worldwide.Within the United States, Circle K owns and operates stores in 48 states, with the largest concentration of stores found in Louisiana. Fuel is sold under various brands, with the Circle K and Shell brands as the most common. Other brands of fuel sold at Circle K stores include Valero, BP, Exxon, Marathon, Irving, Mobil, Esso and Phillips 66. Approximately 13% of stores worldwide do not sell fuel.
Circle K operates stores in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Hong Kong, and has franchises in Mexico, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Guam, Honduras, Indonesia, Jamaica, Macau, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. In Hong Kong and Macau, the stores are called OK in reference to the circle around the K. Circle K Hong Kong was founded in 1985 by Li & Fung Retailing as licensee of the name; however, it was sold back to Couche-Tard in 2020. Circle K had 387 franchised locations throughout Hong Kong as of May 2020.
The Circle K brand entered the Canadian market in 2008, in connection with Couche-Tard's acquisition of Irving Oil's convenience store network. By 2019, more than 800 Mac's branded stores had been rebranded to Circle K throughout central and western Canada.
In September 2015, Couche-Tard announced that Circle K would become the worldwide brand of all of its convenience stores, replacing Mac's, Kangaroo Express, Statoil, and Holiday Stationstores brands. This global rebrand included the introduction of a new logo incorporating elements of its existing brands, improvements to its product offerings and technology, and investing in store-level improvements aimed at improving the customer experience. The rebranding occurred over the following five years; as of March 2020, all of Europe and 85% of North America had been updated with the Circle K brand and logo.
History
Entrepreneur Fred Hervey purchased three Kay's Food Stores, from Kay Misenheimer, in El Paso, Texas, in 1951. Hervey renamed the stores as "Circle K Food Stores, Inc." rather than "Kay." He grew the Circle K chain into neighboring New Mexico and Arizona, which has been the company's home base since 1957.By 1975, there were 1,000 Circle K stores across the U.S. In 1979, Circle K first expanded its reach into foreign markets via a licensing agreement which established the first Circle K stores in Japan by UNY. Until 2018, Circle K stores in Japan were run by the FamilyMart Company, that was named Circle K Sunkus Company until 2016 and was named Circle K Japan Company until 2004, which licensed the Circle K brand from Alimentation Couche-Tard. In 2018, all Circle K stores in Japan were converted to FamilyMart stores. In 1983, the number of stores increased to 2,180 with the purchase of the 960-store UtoteM chain in the western and southern United States.
Karl Eller, a prominent Phoenix, Arizona businessman, served as the company's CEO from 1983 to 1990. During that time, Eller built Circle K into the second largest convenience store operation and the largest publicly owned convenience store chain in the U.S. with 4,631 stores in 32 states and an additional 1,300 or so licensed or joint venture stores in 13 foreign countries. Under Eller's leadership, the company grew from annual sales of $747 million to over $3 billion.
In 1988, the company sent a letter to its over 8,000 employees announcing that it will cut off the medical coverage of those who become sick or injured as a result of AIDS, alcohol, drug abuse or self-inflicted wounds. The company stated that "There are certain lifestyle decisions that we are just not going to assure the results of."
Fortunes declined in the late 1980s as the U.S. economy began to slow down, and Circle K filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 1990; Eller resigned as CEO. Some underperforming locations were sold or closed. In 1993 the company was purchased by Investcorp, an international investment group, and emerged from bankruptcy.
In 1996, Circle K was acquired by Tosco Corporation, an independent petroleum refiner and marketer, but kept its headquarters in Phoenix. Tosco was purchased in 2001 by Phillips Petroleum, which, in 2002, merged with Conoco to form ConocoPhillips. In 2003, Circle K was purchased by Alimentation Couche-Tard, a large, multinational convenience store operator based in the Montreal area, for US$830 million.
In 2005, Taiwan's OK Convenience Store chain terminated its franchise agreement with Circle K.
In 2006, the company acquired the 90-store Spectrum chain serving Georgia and Alabama, the CFM chain in Missouri, 35 Sterling Dairy locations in Northwest Ohio, and 26 stores under various brands from Chico Enterprises of Morgantown, West Virginia. This came after the 2005 rebranding of the various Couche-Tard stores under the more nationally known Circle K brand.
In mid-2006, Alimentation Couche-Tard entered into a franchising agreement with ConocoPhillips to brand some of its company-owned stores as Circle K, in the western portion of the U.S. ConocoPhillips remodeled the stores into the Circle K scheme but continued to operate them. The stores continued to have the new ConocoPhillips unified canopy design and ProClean fuels. These stores were spun off as Phillips 66 in May 2012.
Another oil company, Canada-based Irving Oil, leased out its convenience stores operating under the Bluecanoe and Mainway banners in the United States and Atlantic Canada to Couche-Tard, which rebranded the locations to Circle K in July 2008, while still selling Irving-branded fuel. However, the Mainways in Newfoundland and Labrador did not change until summer 2010. The parties had earlier formed a similar partnership in Quebec, with the stores there operated as Couche-Tard.
In April 2009, ExxonMobil sold 43 Phoenix stores to parent company Couche-Tard as part of a sale of the larger On the Run franchise. These 43 stores were to be rebranded under the Circle K name.
In July 2010, Circle K had dropped down to fourth rank in number of stores, behind 7-Eleven, BP, and Shell in 2010.
In April 2012, Circle K purchased Norway-based Statoil Fuel and Retail ASA and its 2300 fuel stations located in Scandinavia, the Baltics, Poland, and western Russia for $2.8 billion.
On February 10, 2014, Modelo Group sold the Tiendas Extra brand of stores to the Mexican franchise of Circle K, Circulo K.
File:Exxon Circle K North Richland Hills TX.jpg|thumb|left|A Circle K with an Exxon fuel station in North Richland Hills, Texas
On December 18, 2014, Couche-Tard announced its acquisition of The Pantry for $860 million all-cash tender. The acquisition closed in March 2015. Following the closing, all stores that were owned and operated by The Pantry, many of them under the "Kangaroo Express" name, were expected to be rebranded under the Circle K banner.
On August 12, 2015, Circle K opened its first five convenience stores in Costa Rica, Central America, after having bought and rebranded the local convenience store chain Delimart.
File:EssoRichmondHill.jpg|thumb|right|A Circle K in Richmond Hill, Ontario, converted from an On the Run store after its purchase from Imperial Oil
On September 23, 2015, Couche-Tard unveiled a refreshed brand identity for Circle K, and announced that the Statoil and Mac's brands would be converted to Circle K.
In 2016, Couche-Tard acquired the Irish service station chain Topaz. In April 2018, Couche-Tard announced that they too would be rebranded to Circle K. Couche-Tard similarly acquired Imperial Oil's Esso retail locations in Ontario and Quebec the same year, and rebranded the convenience stores in Ontario to Circle K.
In 2017, Couche-Tard completed its acquisition of CST Brands, adding stores formerly owned by Valero Energy, and a portion of the Ultramar chain in Canada to Circle K.
Also in 2017, Couche-Tard bought Holiday Stationstores, a Minnesota-based chain of fuel stations in the Midwestern United States. Couche-Tard would integrate business practices from Holiday into the Circle K business, including its food service model, full-service franchise program, and car wash subscriptions. Some locations also piloted store formats patterned after that of Holiday.
In November 2018, Circle K opened its first store in New Zealand through master franchisee Pamma Retail Group.
In September 2021, Circle K announced the purchase of 10 convenience and food stores from the Griffin Group in Ireland. All the stores being bought are in Dublin and located in busy areas such as O’Connell Street, College Green, Grafton Street and Sandyford.
In February 2022, Couche-Tard announced that it would rebrand 12 Holiday Stationstores locations in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Circle K.
In April 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that Couche-Tard was considering the British convenience store and restaurant operator EG Group, which would have given it a larger presence in Australia, Western Europe, and EG Group's home market of the United Kingdom, as well as the U.S., especially in Florida, New England, and Ohio. EG Group would instead enter into a sale and leaseback agreement for its U.S. stores, and most of its UK gas stations and restaurants would be sold to retail chain Asda in 2023, along with EG On the Move—a separate company led by Zuber.
On August 19, 2024, Couche-Tard announced it would buy Pittsburgh-based GetGo from Giant Eagle, greatly expanding Circle K's presence in Pennsylvania and complementing its existing stores in Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia, and add to its stores in Maryland. The Federal Trade Commission signed off on the deal on June 26, 2025, with Georgia-based Majors Management purchasing 34 Circle K and one GetGo location to satisfy antitrust concerns. Majors Management rebranded those locations to MAPCO, with all but two of the divestures being in the Indianapolis and Akron, Ohio markets. GetGo will remain headquartered at Giant Eagle's headquarters in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania as opposed to Circle K's headquarters in Tempe or its Great Lakes offices at the former Lawson's/Dairy Mart headquarters in Akron, but will lease separate space from Giant Eagle. The GetGo brand name is also expected to continue at least in the short-term despite Couche-Tard's ongoing efforts to rebrand its Holiday Stationstores as Circle K. The deal closed June 29, 2025.