Circle K
Circle K Stores, Inc. is an American chain of convenience stores that is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and owned by Alimentation Couche-Tard, Inc., based in Laval, Quebec, Canada. 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.
A Circle K store in Fort Worth, Texas | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail (convenience stores) |
| Founded | El Paso, Texas, U.S. (1951) |
| Founder | Fred Hervey |
| Headquarters | Tempe, Arizona, U.S. |
Number of locations | 15,000+ |
Area served | |
Number of employees | 40,000+ |
| Parent | Alimentation Couche-Tard, Inc. |
| Website | circlek |
| Footnotes / references | |
In 2015, Circle K unveiled a new logo and brand identity, and Couche-Tard announced that it would deploy the brand globally, including English-speaking Canada (rebranding from the Mac's brand), Europe (rebranding from the Statoil brand), and the United States (rebranding from the Kangaroo Express brand and updating the existing Circle K brand).