Dive Brief:
- Alimentation Couche-Tard plans to add 750 company-operated Circle K convenience stores to its network in the next five years, executives said during the company’s annual investor meeting on Wednesday.
- The stores will be a combination of new-to-industry builds and small acquisitions, a Couche-Tard spokesperson said in a statement. Most of the sites will be in North America, especially in the U.S. — Couche-Tard’s largest market by far — and the first 100 new builds will be finished in 2026, President and CEO Alex Miller added.
- The updated NTI goals are part of Couche-Tard’s new Core + More strategy, in which the company will focus on strengthening key platforms while pursuing targeted investment opportunities to drive profitability and growth.
Dive Insight:
Industry experts have been wondering what Couche-Tard’s next big move would be after the Canadian retailer withdrew its nearly $50 billion buyout offer of Seven & i Holdings, the parent company of 7-Eleven, last summer. For now, it appears the industry will see Couche-Tard — the second largest c-store retailer in the U.S. — ramp up its organic growth in dramatic fashion.
The company currently has a pipeline of about 1,000 stores at different phases of development, Aaron Brooks, Couche-Tard’s senior vice president of real estate and fuel customer, said during the meeting. But Couche-Tard is keeping its five-year goal at 750 to “remain disciplined,” he added.
Both Miller and Brooks, who three years ago touted plans for Couche-Tard to open 500 new stores by 2028, said on Wednesday that the increase in new builds comes from seeing these locations significantly outperform legacy stores — especially in sales in core categories such as food, nicotine and fuel.
“These sites … sell a ton of food, they sell a ton of merch, they do strong volume,” Miller said.
While new builds and organic growth are the priority, Couche-Tard also intends to reach the 750 store goal through targeting operators with 10 stores or less, Brooks said. He added that Couche-Tard will make more small acquisitions this year than it’s ever made.
“If there's a quality asset that we can buy at an advantage multiple and plug it into our scaled economies at a faster rate than which we can build it, we are buying,” Brooks said.
Couche-Tard plans to keep up with larger M&A for sites not included in the 750 new-store target, notably through buying out regional chains, Brooks said. He emphasized that Couche-Tard continues to see upside in these types of acquisitions.
“The main message is we will continue to focus on what we know and what we have done well throughout the decades,” Brooks said.
