As founder of the companies from which Alimentation Couche-Tard emerged, Alain Bouchard started his convenience store operations in 1980 with the opening of his first convenience store in Laval, Quebec.
In 1985, he acquired 11 stores in the Quebec City region carrying the Couche-Tard banner. After five years of operation, the network had grown to 34 stores, which were renamed under the Couche-Tard brand.
In 1987, Métro-Richelieu Inc.’s Sept-Jours convenience stores were acquired, followed in 1993 by 60 Mac’s/La Maisonnée de Silcorp Limited convenience stores.
Well-loved by Quebecers, Perrette’s 86 stores were acquired by the company in 1994. In 1995, the network included 304 stores, of which 220 were directly operated by Couche-Tard.
In 1997, the company made the major step of acquiring C-Corp Inc., a subsidiary of Provigo Inc., making it owner of 245 Provi-Soir stores in Quebec and some 50 Wink’s in Ontario and Alberta. These set Couche-Tard’s first solid foundations outside of Quebec.
By 2000, twenty years after opening its first store and following two decades of growth, including the acquisition of Silcorp Limited in 1999, Couche-Tard had become the leader in the convenience store industry in Canada and ranked 9th in North America. Some 11,500 employees work throughout the Couche-Tard network and at its head office in Laval.
Couche-Tard continued to grow with the acquisition of the Tabatout network in 2002 (30 stores in Quebec), the master franchise of Dunkin’ Donuts throughout Quebec in 2003 (104 restaurants) and 13 corporate stores from Exploitation Quali-T Inc., a subsidiary of Groupe Therrien, in 2009. Today, the company operates nearly 1,900 stores in Canada under the Couche-Tard® and Mac’s® brands, as well as an extensive network of stores across the world.
Over the years Alain Bouchard has, along with his closest associates and all of his employees, grown Couche-Tard to be the exception company it is today. In September 2014, Brian P. Hannasch was named President and Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Mr. Bouchard, who is today Executive Chairman of the Board.