"How big will we get? Well, my successor in 10 years will have to decide that," president and CEO Alain Bouchard [image-nocss] told a press conference after the company's annual meeting in Laval, Quebec, according to the report.
Despite recently acquiring the trademark rights to ExxonMobil's On the Run convenience stores, as well as 43 stores owned and operated by ExxonMobil and 444 of their franchised stores in the rest of the United States, "Bouchard wants more," said the report.
"We won't be in Alaska. Aside from that, we're interested in being everywhere [in the U.S.]," said Bouchard.
He added that the U.S. c-store market is fragmented, "with the big players owning about 20% of the market," which puts Couche-Tard in a good position to acquire more stores from smaller chains and independent owners.
Bouchard said that in the United States, there are another "seven or eight chains of around 1,000 stores that might interest me."
Couche-Tard is the top c-store company in Canada with 2,048 stores across 10 provinces and second in the United States with 3,858 in 43 states. More than 4,100 of their stores offer gas stations.
The company operates under the Couche-Tard, Mac's, Circle K and On the Run banners and employs more than 52,000 people. Its fiscal 2009 total revenues exceeded $15.7 billion with net earnings of $254 million representing a 34% increase than the previous year. Revenues were $3.7 billion in first-quarter 2010, down 14.9% because of low fuel prices. But net earnings for the quarter increased to $91 million from $47.2 million the same period last year.
Click hereto view a PDF of the annual meeting presentation.For details on Bouchard's credit-card initiative, watch for tomorrow's CSP Daily News.
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