CST Brands

CST Brands, Inc.

Company type	Corporation
Industry	Convenience store
Founded	May 1, 2013
Defunct	June 28, 2017
Fate	Acquired by Alimentation Couche-Tard and rebranded as Circle K
Headquarters	San Antonio, Texas United States
Area served	North America

CST Brands, Inc. was an American publicly traded fuel and convenience retailer. It was the second-largest of its kind in North America, with 1,900 outlets in the U.S. and Canada. CST Brands had 2013 revenues of about $12.8 billion and made approximately $360 million in EBITDA.^[1] Stores were concentrated in the central and southwestern U.S. states and in eastern Canada. Corner Store was the firm's primary retail brand in the US and in Canada's English speaking provinces. In Canada's French speaking provinces, Dépanneur du Coin was the company's retail brand. In addition to convenience store retail sales, CST Brands also sold fuel under a number of licensed energy brands such as Valero, Exxon, Shell, and Phillips 66.

The company was created on May 1, 2013, when Valero Energy Corporation decided to spin off its retail operations in an effort to focus on refining.^[2] On August 6, 2014, CST Brands agreed to buy Lehigh Gas GP LLC, the general partner of Lehigh Gas Partners LP (LGP), from Lehigh Gas Corp in a cash and stock deal. CST Brands also acquired the associated Incentive Distribution Rights of LGP. The deal closed on October 1, 2014 and LGP changed its name to CrossAmerica Partners LP, trading under the ticker symbol "CAPL".^[3]

On August 22, 2016, Alimentation Couche-Tard, parent company of Circle K, entered a merger agreement with CST to acquire over 2,000 of its locations in an all cash deal worth $4.4 billion (~$5.48 billion in 2023), including net debt assumed.^[4] The transaction officially closed on June 28, 2017. Stores under the former CST brands including Corner Store, Flash Foods, and Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes were converted and remodeled to the Circle K brand.