International convenience retailer Couche-Tard is making Circle K its solitary, global brand. The new, modified Circle K brand will replace existing Circle K, Statoil, Mac's and Kangaroo Express stores and service stations.
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The stores undergoing the change are located across the United States, Canada, Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as licensed stores throughout Asia.
Couche-Tard will retain the founding brand name in the province of Quebec in Canada only. The global Circle K brand will begin rolling out in the United States in January of 2016. The change will being in Europe in May and other Canadian provinces in May of 2017.
"Circle K is a brand that is already popular with huge numbers of our customers and employees," said Couche-Tard President and CEO Brian Hannasch. "Today we are setting out to make it easy for existing and new customers in more countries than ever before to prefer Circle K as their destination for convenience and fuel, with a fresh new look and feel and even better products for people on the go, always combined with fast and friendly service."
Circle K is already Couche-Tard's largest brand, spanning thousands of stores in 14 countries.
Sales at U.S. convenience stores continue to rise, hitting a record $204 billion in 2013. Permeating the market, these quick-stop stores make up 34 percent of all retail outlets in the country.
Unable to deny their popularity, big-box retailers are even trying to mimic their success. For example, last year Walmart (NYSE: WMT) debuted its first Walmart To Go store, a smaller-format store with the grab-and-go mentality.
For more:
-See this Couche-Tard press release
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