Six years have passed since Murphy USA acquired QuickChek, but the company’s initial vision for the convenience store chain has not come to fruition. Despite plans to expand QuickChek, the retailer has actually closed more stores than it has opened, and efforts to integrate QuickChek’s foodservice capabilities into Murphy’s network have stalled.
In December 2020, then-CEO Andrew Clyde outlined an ambitious plan for the two convenience store chains to grow together. During a presentation to stock analysts, Clyde announced that Murphy aimed to open up to 10 new QuickChek stores annually, while also expanding its own banner. He highlighted the potential to bring QuickChek’s foodservice capabilities into Murphy’s stores, saying “Fortunately, for both firms, our established real estate teams have built healthy pipelines of new store locations for future growth.”
QuickChek Growth Falls Short of Ambitious Targets
Since completing the acquisition in early 2021, Murphy has closed more QuickChek stores than it has opened. Meanwhile, Murphy has prioritized the growth of its main banner, setting a goal to open at least 500 new-to-industry stores in the following decade.
Although this pace falls short of the roughly 50 stores annually envisioned by Clyde, the expansion of the Murphy banner has been relatively consistent. In contrast, QuickChek’s growth trajectory has declined nearly every year since fiscal 2021, falling from 158 locations to 147 as of the second quarter of 2026.
Murphy USA’s namesake banner is growing, while QuickChek is shrinking.
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Experts Blame Integration Challenges and Competition
According to three former Murphy corporate employees and two stock analysts, the acquisition has produced fewer benefits than originally anticipated. “I would characterize it as disappointing that there hasn’t been more growth or more of an influence on the overall business and EBITDA and earnings from QuickChek since the time of the acquisition,” said Bradley Thomas, managing director and equity research analyst for KeyBanc Capital Markets.
Murphy has been reshaping the QuickChek portfolio, with many closures reflecting efforts to exit older, underperforming stores that do not sell fuel. At the time of the acquisition, only 89 of QuickChek’s 157 stores offered fuel. Thomas and stock analyst Jacob Aiken-Phillips agree that this shift reflects a broader reassessment of QuickChek’s role within Murphy, citing the chain’s struggles to compete with QSR chains in New Jersey and New York.
Aiken-Phillips noted that intense competition among restaurants centered on discounting has put fuel-less QuickChek stores at a disadvantage. “There’s less of a reason to stop there,” he said. “Now, Murphy is trying to rationalize that.” Aiken-Phillips added, “More often than not, they’re actually just closing down the stores that don’t have fuel stations, because a big part of the whole strategy is having the prepared food inside and the fuel in order to drive traffic.”
QuickChek’s Expansion Plans Abandoned
While Murphy has spent the past several years reevaluating QuickChek’s footprint, the company also abandoned plans to expand the banner into new states. All three former corporate employees and Aiken-Phillips confirmed that shortly after the acquisition, Clyde had expressed ambitions to bring QuickChek to additional markets along the East Coast, including Florida.
New Murphy USA CEO Mindy West acknowledged during a February earnings call that QuickChek’s margins and traffic faced significant pressure, prompting a need to simplify operations and improve the customer experience. West emphasized that while growth remains important, profitability must come first for the banner.
