{"id":34306,"date":"2026-02-15T01:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/couche-tard-to-add-750-company-operated-c-stores-in-next-5-years\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T01:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:03:13","slug":"couche-tard-to-add-750-company-operated-c-stores-in-next-5-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/couche-tard-to-add-750-company-operated-c-stores-in-next-5-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Couche-Tard to add 750 company-operated c-stores in next 5 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech\">\n    <button class=\"text-to-speech__button button\"><br \/>\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"text-to-speech__button__icon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?500116090725\" alt=\"-\"><br \/>\n        Listen to the article<br \/>\n        <span class=\"text-to-speech__button__audio-length\">3 min<\/span><br \/>\n    <\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls\">\n        <audio controls=\"\" class=\"js-text-to-speech\" preload=\"none\"><source src=\"https:\/\/text-to-speech.divecdn.com\/newspost\/812080\/2026-02-12_18.50.23\/couche-tard-to-add-750-company-operated-c-stores-in-next-half-decade.wav\" type=\"audio\/mp3\"><\/source><\/audio><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls__text\">\n            This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\">feedback<\/a>.\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Dive Brief:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>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\u2019s annual investor meeting on Wednesday.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>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. \u2014 Couche-Tard\u2019s largest market by far \u2014 and the first 100 new builds will be finished in 2026, President and CEO Alex Miller added.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>The updated NTI goals are part of <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/corporate.couche-tard.com\/2026-02-11-ALIMENTATION-COUCHE-TARD-PRESENTS-ITS-2026-BUSINESS-STRATEGY-UPDATE-AND-NEW-LONG-TERM-GUIDANCE\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Couche-Tard\u2019s new Core + More strategy<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span>, in which the company will focus on strengthening key platforms while pursuing targeted investment opportunities to drive profitability and growth.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Dive Insight:<\/h3>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Industry experts have been wondering what Couche-Tard\u2019s next big move would be after the Canadian retailer <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cstoredive.com\/news\/alimentation-couche-tard-ends-takeover-bid-seven-and-i\/753301\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>withdrew its nearly $50 billion buyout offer<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> of Seven &amp; i Holdings, the parent company of 7-Eleven, last summer. For now, it appears the industry will see Couche-Tard \u2014 the second largest c-store retailer in the U.S. \u2014 ramp up its organic growth in dramatic fashion.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>The company currently has a pipeline of about 1,000 stores at different phases of development, Aaron Brooks, Couche-Tard\u2019s 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 \u201cremain disciplined,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Both Miller and Brooks, who three years ago touted plans for Couche-Tard to open <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cstoredive.com\/news\/couche-tard-build-500-new-stores-2028\/696390\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>500 new stores<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> by 2028, said on Wednesday that the increase in new builds comes from seeing these locations significantly outperform legacy stores \u2014 especially in sales in core categories such as food, nicotine and fuel.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>\u201cThese sites \u2026\u00a0 sell a ton of food, they sell a ton of merch, they do strong volume,\u201d Miller said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>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\u2019s ever made.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>\u201cIf there&#8217;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,\u201d Brooks said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Couche-Tard plans to keep up with larger M&amp;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.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>\u201cThe main message is we will continue to focus on what we know and what we have done well throughout the decades,\u201d Brooks said.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/news\/couche-tard-to-add-750-company-operated-c-stores-in-next-half-decade\/812080\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">This article was originally posted at Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive &#8230; <a title=\"Couche-Tard to add 750 company-operated c-stores in next 5 years\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/couche-tard-to-add-750-company-operated-c-stores-in-next-5-years\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Couche-Tard to add 750 company-operated c-stores in next 5 years\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[457],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-dive","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}