Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.

The largest c-store operator in Canada, Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. is a major force in the U.S. and global c-store markets.

Couche-Tard's North American retail network consists of 15 business units, 11 in the United States covering 48 states and the District of Columbia, and four in Canada covering all 10 provinces. The company operates in the United States under the Circle K and Holiday Stationstores banners and in Canada under the Circle K and Couche-Tard banners. It also has a retail network in Scandinavia, Ireland, Poland, the Baltics and Russia, and it licenses the Circle K brand in 16 other countries. Its worldwide network consists of approximately 14,200 stores.

Circle K stores offer a wide variety of branded and private-label items, and the Simply Great coffee and Polar Pop fountain programs. The company also recently launched its Fresh Food Fast program built around three pillars: good food, done in a way that's operationally easy and profitable and with the ability to be customized at the store level or store cluster level.

Couche-Tard Inc. also has invested in Fire & Flower Holdings Corp., an independent Canadian cannabis retailer, and entered into an agreement with Canopy Growth Corp., a diversified cannabis and hemp company, to sell recreational marijuana in Ontario.

For benchmarking purposes, store counts are as of Jan. 1, 2021.