Alimentation Couche-Tard

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.

Type	: ATD.A, ATD.B S&P/TSX 60 component
Industry	Retail (Convenience stores)
Founded	1980
Founder	Alain Bouchard Réal Plourde
Headquarters	Laval, Quebec, Canada
Key people	Alain Bouchard, Chairman Brian Hannasch, CEO
Products	Couche-Tard Mac's Circle K On the Run Statoil Fuel & Retail
Revenue	$37.9 billion (2014)
Net income	$812.2 million (2014)
Number of employees	around 80,000 (2013)
Website	www.couche-tard.com

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. or simply Couche-Tard is one of the largest company-owned convenience store operators in the world with more than 12,000 stores across Canada, the United States, Europe, Mexico, Japan, China, and Indonesia.

The company operates its corporate stores under mainly Couche-Tard, Mac's, Circle K, On the Run and also under the affiliated brands 7-jours, Dairy Mart, Daisy Mart and Winks.

The flagship Couche-Tard and Mac's stores, as well as some older Winks outlets, prominently feature a distinctive anthropomorphic red, winking owl (Hibou). This mascot of a "night owl" (couche-tard) was inherited from the Provi-Soir/Winks chain when it was absorbed.

Founded by current chairman Alain Bouchard, the corporation is based in Laval, Quebec, Canada, a suburb of Montreal.

There are 581 corporate stores in Quebec under the names Couche-Tard, Provi-Soir and Dépanneur 7 jours as well as 298 affiliated stores such as Tabatou. In Ontario, there are 702 corporate stores and 214 affiliated stores, and in Western Canada, 305 corporate stores and 71 affiliates operated under the names Mac's, Mike's Mart, Becker's, Daisy Mart, and Winks.

Alain Bouchard opened his first convenience store in 1980 in Laval. In 1985, Bouchard acquired 11 "Couche-Tard" branded stores in the Quebec City area which he merged with its existing stores in the Montreal area to rename the whole company "Alimentation Couche-Tard". In 1987, the company purchased the 7 Jours chain from Metro-Richelieu, which Couche-Tard has kept as a separate chain to this day.