Circle K's parent has put another batch of the convenience store chain's U.S. locations up for sale, this time it's shopping 68 sites across 21 states.
Alimentation Couche-Tard, based in Quebec, Canada, has once again retained NRC Realty & Capital Advisors of Northbrook, Illinois, to coordinate and manage the marketing and sale of the retail properties. Of the stores now on the block, 42 sell gasoline while the balance are convenience-retail only. The deadline for the bids is Nov 16, NRC said in a statement.
Global Couche-Tard, which has more than 14,400 stores, has been rejiggering its U.S. portfolio. In June last year, it tapped NRC to sell 109 Circle K sites in the United States and Canada. In December 2022, it acquired 36 U.S. convenience stores from two operators, Slidell Oil and Pic Quik. And in March 2021, it put 306 North American sites on the block that the company said "no longer fit our strategic objectives, either from a brand perspective or from a regional scale perspective.”
The new group of Circle K sites that Couche-Tard is selling have an average store size of 2,300 square feet and an average lot size of 23,000 square feet, according to NRC.
“We have some good sites in this offering which will be of interest to individual operators and smaller companies,” Evan Gladstone, NRC’s executive managing director, said in a statement. “We have a few stores in California, Florida and Texas as well larger groups in Indiana and Ohio.”
This is the third sale of Circle K sites that NRC has handled in the past three years, according to the advisory firm. Since its inception in 1989, NRC has sold more than 15,000 properties for leading convenience store retailers and closely held businesses.
Couche-Tard, which is one of the largest independent convenience store operators in the United States, didn't respond to a phone call Friday from CoStar News seeking comment.
The company plans to provide charging stations for electric vehicles in North America, installing them at 200 locations in the United States and Canada by 2024.