Fuel, nicotine and beverages remained the primary performance drivers for Alimentation Couche-Tard in fiscal 2025, collectively representing the largest shares of revenue across its global business, according to the company's Business Strategy Update last week.
“To continue to grow organically … we can continue to outperform in these categories,” said Louise Warner, senior vice president of North America and global commercial optimization, on Couche-Tard’s webcast.
- Alimentation Couche-Tard is No. 2 on CSP’s 2025 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.
Fuel tops Alimentation Couche-Tard’s revenues
Fuel accounted for 74% of total revenue in 2025. The company reported selling 15.4 billion gallons during the year. Approximately 13,000 stores—about 90% of its global network as of the end of second-quarter fiscal 2026—offer fuel.
Couche-Tard, Laval, Quebec, aims to keep forecourts fast, clean and online, Warner said.
Warner said the business also focuses on answering questions like, “How do we approach our business customers? How do we build personalized loyalty offers that they love with fuel at the core? How do we think about supply chain, sourcing, logistics, efficiency and make sure we’re dynamic with our fuel pricing strategies?”
Nicotine is the second-largest revenue source
Nicotine represented 9% of total revenue. In the United States, Couche-Tard reported a 22% share of the modern oral market and a 17% share of the cigarette market, according to Nielsen and Couche-Tard data.
“Our customer is choosing to either broaden or substitute the products that they’ve traditionally used into these more modern products,” Warner said. “In some cases, a traditional cigarette user will add another product. … We’ve seen a decline in traditional cigarette products but an increase in the consumption in the more modern alternatives like vaping and white nicotine.”
Couche-Tard is outperforming the market in cigarette and modern oral categories by working closely with manufacturers, watching these trends and making sure it has products available for customers, Warner said.
Warner shared a campaign that Couche-Tard did in partnership with manufacturers: For four weeks, every time a customer bought a nicotine product of any type, Couche-Tard offered a free can of Zyn to customers. The business gave away millions of cans, and “that’s maintained momentum of those customers coming back,” she said.
Beverages were the third-largest source of store revenue
Beverages accounted for 8% of revenue at Couche-Tard.
The average consumer has eight to nine beverage occasions per day, Couche-Tard said, with energy drinks continuing to drive growth. At Circle K, energy’s growth rate between 2018 and 2026 has been approximately double that of the broader beverage category. Energy gained 3 household penetration percentage points in 2025 and is expected to reach 80% penetration by 2029, according to Numerator Data Explorer. Energy now represents nearly 10% of total merchandise revenue.
Part of Couche-Tard’s beverage strategy going forward is maximizing store space, Warner said.
“We’re able to fit extra capacity in stores in all shapes and sizes,” she said. “People are creative, they’ll find some more space, and we’re investing in physical plans.”
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