It was the spring of 2002.
I was in the elevator at the picturesque Le Chateau Frontenac in Old Quebec. Facing me was someone whose frame I had only seen in pictures and printed pages of business magazines.
Alain Bouchard. We talked for a few minutes—first in my broken French, then in his superior English.
Before we headed in different directions, I asked the co-founder and then president and CEO, “What would be your biggest dream for Alimentation Couche-Tard?”
His answer has stayed with me these past 23 years.
“To be the biggest convenience chain in North America …. Even bigger than 7-Eleven.”
- 7-Eleven is No. 1, Alimentation Couche-Tard is No. 2 and Casey's General Stores in No. 3 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. Sunoco is No. 96.
His Canadian pride brimmed, and the course of the company has been punctuated with one significant acquisition after another. In fact, at one point it looked as if Couche-Tard would overtake 7-Eleven for largest North American chain—when it purchased the 2,000-store CST Brands for $4.4 billion in 2016 (CST/Corner Store had been previously spun off by Valero).
But before you could get haircut, 7-Eleven’s parent company, Seven & i, responded with its own big deal—obtaining more than 1,000 stores from Sunoco.
The tit-for-tat is one worthy of a Netflix series.
When Couche-Tard stunningly walked away from the monthslong negotiations to acquire the only company that outsized them in store count, my mind swiftly pivoted to the only other time the Canadian super retail giant had been rebuffed.
It was 2010, when the Circle K proprietor entered a hostile takeover bid for Casey’s, the Ankeny, Iowa, operator. At the time, the publicly traded Casey’s ran 1,500 convenience stores across a far-flung network of small neighborhoods across the Midwest.
Some analysts felt that Casey’s was underperforming, that it was operating more like a privately held, family-run organization rather than an entity accountable to shareholders.
Couche-Tard pounced, offering $1.9 billion based on $36 per share. The offer and Couche-Tard’s aggressive posture spurred accusations and counter-accusations between the two companies. Casey’s even invited a “friendly” bid from 7-Eleven.
After months of high drama, Casey’s stakeholders overwhelmingly rejected Couche-Tard’s forays and remained independent, where today the company’s stock is selling at a resounding 14 times Couche-Tard’s bid and its value is roughly $19 billion—10 times that offered 15 years ago.
When I see the changes taking place at Seven & i, including the recent appointment of its first non-Japanese CEO and other internal shakeups, I feel a certain déjà vu.
In both the Casey’s and 7-Eleven bids, Alimentation Couche-Tard landed significant body blows. It pounded at exploitable weaknesses and triggered a warning that these giant entities were operating without urgency.
I’ve long held that today’s Casey’s would never have happened without Couche-Tard’s formidable threat. What about 7-Eleven?
Questions remain whether this latest drama will ignite a sea-change in the company’s modus operandi or simply result in relatively forgettable cosmetic tweaks?
And for Alain Bouchard, the 76-year-old now executive chairman of Couche-Tard, will this be the end of his dream to be the biggest North American c-store chain, or is it just a pause?
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