Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.

With roots north of the border in Canada, Alimentation Couche-Tard is the largest convenience-store operator in that country and has been vying for the No. 1 ranking in CSP’s annual count of U.S. c-stores for quite some time. Its North American network of Circle K stores consists of 15 business units, including 11 in the United States covering 48 states and the District of Columbia, and four in Canada covering all provinces (under the Mac’s and Couche-Tard flags). The publicly traded company also has a franchise division that oversees international units.

In June 2018, the chain began rebranding about 400 Corner Stores to Circle K, as part of a global brand initiative that it started in 2016. That Corner Stores acquisition came in 2016, when the chain negotiated the purchase of CST Brands Inc.

Circle K stores offer a wide variety of branded, proprietary and private-label items, as well as a recently revamped coffee program and its well-known Polar Pop fountain brand.

Source: Convenience Digital Resource Library, Technomic. For benchmarking purposes, store counts are year-end 2018.