TORONTO — Fire & Flower Holdings Corp. has appointed an Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. executive as its new CEO.
Stéphane Trudel, who previously worked as senior vice president of operations for convenience-store chain Circle K’s Laval, Quebec-based parent company, was initially appointed as a director of the cannabis consumer technology and retail platform in June 2020 and also serves as a member of the audit committee and corporate governance and compensation committee of the company’s board of directors.
Couche-Tard made a strategic investment in Fire & Flower in 2019. The company owns and operates the Fire & Flower, Friendly Stranger, Happy Dayz and Hotbox cannabis brands.
- Alimentation Couche-Tard is No. 2 onCSP’s 2022 Top 40 update to the 2021 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count. Watch for the 2022 Top 202 ranking in the June issue of CSP magazine and in CSP Daily News.
Trudel replaces Trevor Fencott, who has stepped down from his role of CEO, the company said.
“Over the past four years we built Fire & Flower from the ground-up into one of the world's largest licensed cannabis retailers, powered by our unique Hifyre retail and consumer technology platform. We also secured and deepened our strategic partnership with Alimentation Couche-Tard, one of the world's largest retailers, to provide us with capabilities to expand globally,” Fencott said. "Now that the foundations have been built and tested, it is time for the company to really scale its model and operations.”
It's an important time in the development of the company, Trudel said.
“In Canada, the company continues to innovate and build market share and we plan to increase our focus on international opportunities to further accelerate our growth, while further leveraging our strategic partnership with (Alimentation Couche-Tard),” he said. “I would also like to thank Trevor whose dedication helped lead Fire & Flower to the forefront of our industry.”
Trudel was senior vice president of operations for Couche-Tard from January 2018 to June 2022, leading its operations in Canada as well as its investments in the cannabis industry.
Couche-Tard’s 26-country global network includes approximately 9,300 c-stores in North America, with more than 7,100 in the United States under the Circle K and Holiday Stationstores banners in 48 states, and approximately 2,100 in Canada under the Circle K, Mac’s and Couche-Tard banners. In Europe, under the Circle K and other banners, Couche-Tard operates a retail network in Scandinavia, Ireland, Poland, the Baltics and Russia including more than 2,700 stores and unmanned automated fuel stations. And under licensing agreements, more than 2,200 stores operate under the Circle K banner in 15 other countries and territories (Cambodia, Egypt, Guam, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jamaica, Macau, Mexico, Mongolia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam). This brings Couche-Tard’s worldwide total network to approximately 14,200 mostly Circle K-branded c-stores.
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