The story
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. (Hervey would go on to serve two terms as mayor of El Paso.)
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 ($2.41 billion in 2025 dollars) to over $3 billion ($7.39 billion in 2025 dollars).
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 ($1.45 billion in 2025 dollars).
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 (Mac's, Bigfoot, Dairy Mart, and Handy Andy) under the more nationally known Circle K brand.
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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 (3,455), behind 7-Eleven (6,523 stores), BP (4,730 stores), and Shell (4,630 convenience stores) 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.
On December 18, 2014, Couche-Tard announced its acquisition of The Pantry for $860 million all-cash tender ($1.17 billion in 2025 dollars). 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.
On September 23, 2015, Couche-Tard unveiled a refreshed brand identity for Circle K, and announced that the Statoil (Northern, Central and Eastern Europe) and Mac's (English Canada) 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 (228) and Quebec (50) the same year, and rebranded the convenience stores in Ontario (many of which previously operated under the On the Run brand) 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 (with the latter also switching fuel suppliers to Irving).
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. (where it had bought Kroger's convenience store business, as well as Cumberland Farms), 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 (which had recently been acquired by EG founders Mohsin and Zuber Issa) 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 (all of its existing stores in that state are descended from Lawson's/Dairy Mart) 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.
From Wikipedia’s article on Circle K, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4