In my 12 years as chief editor of CSP, few stories have attracted as much attention and emotion—both within our company and among our readers—as our March cover story about Alimentation Couche-Tard’s anchor brand, Circle K [CSP—March ’16, p. 30].
The cover featured an unsealed sandwich with the headline “Building a Global Bland.” The deck read, “With scale and synergy mastered, does Circle K need a personality?”
Without question, Couche-Tard is our industry’s pre-eminent M&A leader. Since its first footsteps onto American soil when it acquired Bigfoot stores from Johnson Oil Co. in 2001 and the bankrupt Dairy Mart operation one year later, Couche-Tard and its thoughtful chairman, Alain Bouchard, have proven to be masters of the deal.
The company is remarkably disciplined in the assets it pursues and the price it will pay. It never goes for double-digit multiples and it is unaffected by trending winds. Whether the market is frail or, like today, when multiples have hit obscene highs due to cheap gas and easy financing, Couche-Tard’s approach to acquisitions changes little.
But what about the actual Circle K stores? The company’s category managers score high across the board, yet in consumer surveys and interviews with many of you—our convenience retailers—Circle K stores evoke little enthusiasm or passion.
Solid, steady, unremarkable: Those are among the adjectives we’ve heard you use to describe the chain. Several of you described Circle K as bland, both in experience and in its private-label program.
In short, the company is praised for its executive skill, consolidating prowess and supply chain logistics. But the store itself is nothing memorable.
As chief editor, I am responsible for ensuring every story we write is fair, balanced, informative and carried out without any malice or agenda.
Every month our editorial team meets and discusses potential features worthy of being on the cover. Our criteria are simple: The story must be timely, preferably exclusive and, optimally, actionable.
Last September, Couche-Tard announced it would make Circle K its global brand, replacing legacy banners such as Kangaroo Express, Statoil and Mac’s across the United States, Canada and central Europe. It unveiled a redesigned Circle K logo and held a press conference Sept. 22.
The news inspired a lively conversation in our editorial meeting. What exactly is the Circle K brand? What qualities distinguish Circle K? Does it possess a signature item like 7-Eleven’s Slurpee?
For the story, we reached out to company officials, who did not respond to our requests for an interview. We also contacted former employees, brand specialists, analysts who cover the company and some retailers who directly compete against Circle K.
To provide a corporate view, we reused statements that Couche-Tard president and CEO Brian Hannasch made during last fall’s media call, and we also used information from Darrell Davis, senior vice president of operations, who is leading the rebranding strategy.
We spoke to many people as we worked on the story. Most were on the record, but some, notably former employees and retailers who compete with Circle K, generally spoke openly and honestly on condition of anonymity.
This, of course, is tricky. As a former investigative reporter, I have lived—and yet loathed—the world of unnamed sources.
My personal rule when it came to anonymous sources was never to rely on a single source for anything and, in most cases, to seek out a minimum of three disconnected sources to confirm a piece of information.
When you read the story, you’ll find a lot of praise, some constructive advice and perhaps some blemishes. You’ll find a great business operation that has not yet created a great c-store. I believe the story, written by senior editor Angel Abcede, was not only fair, but also insightful and poignant for a channel that increasingly faces greater competition and higher consumer demands to be better.
That said, I do believe, in hindsight, that our headline was unnecessarily harsh and caustic. “Building a Global Bland”—the last word was deliberately a play on “brand.”
Some of you found our choice offensive and unnecessary. I’ve come to agree with you. The headline, perhaps accurately, spoke to Circle K’s present but did not speak aspirationally to its future. I have no doubt, based on its tremendous track record, that Circle K will build a stronger retail experience.
As one retail executive told me upon reading the story, “I don’t look at Couche-Tard to necessarily be a pioneer for innovation. What I learn from them is how they’ve made their business model work so efficiently across continents. It’s pretty amazing.”
Mitch Morrison is vice president and group editor of Winsight’s Convenience Group. Reach him at mmorrison@winsightmedia.com.
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