Circle K Europe

A lot of systems. A lot of different places. And no single source of truth.

Circle K had a clear strategic view of what good looked like, but no way to follow it through consistently. As Finn Legaard Kopart, Head of Operational Excellence, put it: the business was lacking a tool that would bring them to the next level.

Teams were navigating multiple systems, fragmented communications, and no clear way to know what mattered most that day, when, or where to find the information.

“A lot of systems, a lot of different places for communications and tasks. That created an environment for our store managers and store employees where it was hard to understand what was most important.” Emma Blixt, Director of Operational Excellence

Teams were making store-level changes, adjusting layouts, shifting product placement, based on instinct rather than data, with no reliable way to know what was actually driving sales. The business kept surfacing the same challenges in annual reviews. Not because people weren’t working hard, but because the tools weren’t giving them the right signals at the right time.

Start with 32 stores. Prove it. Then go all in: across all 12 markets, in one shot.

Circle K started with a focused pilot across 32 stores with two goals: increase sales and reduce food waste. The results against control stores were strong on both. But more importantly, the pilot revealed that the platform could address challenges well beyond the original scope: audits, compliance, equipment uptime, repair and maintenance.

When it came to scale, Circle K made a deliberate choice: don’t phase it. Launch across all 12 markets at once, with full localization, language, currency, and country-specific regulatory requirements, built in from day one.

“Speed to value is above what we can develop ourselves. Quorso showed us an off-the-shelf concept we could take advantage of and benefit from.” Finn Legaard Kopart, Head of Operational Excellence

A market lead was appointed in each country, someone with deep local knowledge to own the rollout, surface specific challenges, and act as an internal champion for adoption. That ownership was central to the success of the launch.

“To have one person dedicated per market was very important for us. A huge part of the success of the rollout came from that ownership.” Emma Blixt, Director of Operational Excellence

Rather than carry existing complexity over, the team used the Quorso rollout to rebuild the “Easy Checks” program from the ground up: cleaner, more actionable, and better connected to real store operations.

The biggest change management challenge wasn’t technology adoption. It was getting store managers to stop reaching for the Power BI report and trust that the mission in their Quorso inbox was telling them the right thing to do. Market ambassadors, peer testimonials, and a disciplined focus on engagement metrics all played a role.

“A year in.” “Just phenomenal.” And an operation that finally speaks one language.

Central teams can now see engagement by store, track mission completion in real time, and act quickly when a market starts to drift, rather than finding out weeks later in a quarterly review.

“We are more accurate, we are more focused. We can pinpoint where the organization should focus in order to maintain a high standard.” Finn Legaard Kopart, Head of Operational Excellence

When a mission is completed and the result shows up in the numbers, it creates a feedback loop that wasn’t possible before. Teams can see the value of their work immediately.

“I start my day with a five-minute meeting with my staff. We open Quorso together, check the daily missions, see if anything is urgent, and then prioritize our plan for the day. It’s the first thing we do every day.” Philip Eriksson, Store Manager, Circle K Sweden

It closes the loop on execution. For the first time, teams can see the impact of their work on sales.

In Scandinavia, car washes close when temperatures drop. With Quorso, central teams can identify which sites were affected and ensure the right behaviors are in place to maximize sales when conditions improve.

ServiceNow repair tickets are now integrated directly into Quorso, alerting store managers in real-time when equipment has been serviced so nothing gets lost and action happens immediately.

“Having that visibility and cost control has been a more positive effect than we expected from the start.” Emma Blixt, Director of Operational Excellence

Not a vendor. A partnership.

What Circle K describes about working with Quorso is consistent across every person on the team: a relationship that felt different from the first conversation, and has continued to deepen through genuine collaboration.

“We have never felt so close support and backup to the needs that we brought to the table.” Finn Legaard Kopart, Head of Operational Excellence

The platform Circle K uses today reflects a genuine collaboration. Programs, features, and use cases, including the Easy Checks audit framework, were shaped together as the partnership deepened, not handed over as a finished product.

“I have never worked with a partner that has visited our stores as much as Quorso. When I ask other vendors when they last visited one of our stores, the answers vary. With Quorso, we get questions all the time: when can we come and visit? Can we come to different countries to understand the cultures and ways of working? That engagement is what I believe drives great results.” Emma Blixt, Director of Operational Excellence

The product Circle K said yes to at the start is not the product they use today. Every new use case, every market-specific challenge, every piece of feedback made it better.

“We sit with a tool today that is even stronger than what we said yes to in the beginning. And that comes down to people.” Finn Legaard Kopart, Head of Operational Excellence

The execution engine, and it’s just getting started.

Circle K’s ambition for Quorso isn’t to maintain what they’ve built. It’s to expand it. More use cases, more of the business running on the same platform, more of the organization benefiting from what the data surfaces every day.