Alain Bouchard | |
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Born | 1949 (age 74–75) Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada |
Occupation | businessman |
Employer(s) | Alimentation Couche-Tard (1980–present) |
Known for | Chairman, CEO and Co-founded Alimentation Couche-Tard |
Board member of | Atrium Innovations |
Spouse | Sandra Chartrand [1] |
Children | 4 |
Alain Bouchard OC OQ (born 1949) is a Canadian billionaire businessman. He is co-founder and chairman of Alimentation Couche-Tard, and also serves on the board of directors of Atrium Innovations. Both corporations are based in Quebec.
Alain Bouchard was born in 1949, in Chicoutimi, Quebec, and was one of six children. His parents were devout Catholics, as was most of Quebec at that time. His father, Jean-Paul Bouchard, owned an excavation company and was ambitious and a tireless worker, despite only having three years of elementary school education. Bouchard’s mother, who went to school through the seventh grade, managed the company’s finances. [2]
Bouchard's father once owned and managed a road-construction business in Quebec. When his father's company went bankrupt, the family moved to a mobile home in the village of Micoua. [3]
At nineteen, Bouchard worked as a stock boy in his brother's Perrette milk store and in 1969 was hired by Perrette's owner to scout and set up new stores. [4] After Bouchard had opened 100 of Perrette’s 184 stores, he left Perrette because he believed that the company did not treat its employees well. He then joined Provi-Soir, a competitor, as the head of development, construction, and real estate. Wanting to open his own store, Bouchard also attended business courses at HEC Montreal for three years while studying English. He eventually bought two Provi-Soir franchises using his earnings from private real-estate investments. [2]
In the late 1970s, Bouchard worked independently as a retailer before founding Alimentation Couche-Tard in 1980. [5] Serving as Chief Executive Officer of Alimentation Couche-Tard from 1980 to 2014, Bouchard led the company as it expanded from one convenience store to more than 12,500 convenience stores around the world. [6] Maintaining a decentralized organization structure and using the best ideas found in the organization has been noted by Bouchard as factors in Couche-Tard's success. [7] In 2003 the company acquired U.S. based Circle K. [8]
Bouchard was a member of the board of Québecor from 1997 to 2009. With a net worth of US$6.2B billion in 2023, [9] [10] Bouchard is in the top 10 of richest people in the province of Quebec and top 25 in Canada and was named Canada's Outstanding CEO of the Year for 2012. [10] [5] He is the recipient of an International Horatio Alger Award. [6]
Bouchard is married and a father of four children, Jonathan, Karinne, Camille and Rose. [6]
The Sandra and Alain Bouchard Foundation is devoted to helping those with intellectual challenges as well as the arts and culture. The foundation also financed the Pierre Lassonde Pavilion at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in Quebec City.
Mac's Convenience Stores was a chain of convenience stores in Canada. The company was divided into three geographic business units: eastern Canada, central Canada, and western Canada. It had been owned and operated by Alimentation Couche-Tard since 1999. Since 2017, it served as one of Couche-Tard's two main banners in English-speaking Canada, alongside Circle K. The brand has been phased out in favour of the Circle K banner.
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., or simply Couche-Tard, is a Canadian multinational operator of convenience stores. The company has 14,302 stores across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Japan, China, and Indonesia. The company operates its corporate stores mainly under the Couche-Tard, Circle K, and On the Run brands but also under the affiliated brands Mac's Convenience Stores, go!, 7-jours, Dairy/Daisy Mart, Becker's and Winks.
Circle K Stores, Inc. is an American chain of convenience stores headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and owned by Alimentation Couche-Tard, Inc., based in Laval, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1951 in El Paso, Texas, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 1990 and went through several owners, before being acquired by Alimentation Couche-Tard in 2003. As of February 2020, Circle K has 9,799 stores in North America, 2,697 stores in Europe, and an additional 2,380 stores operating under franchise agreements worldwide.
Manulife Bank of Canada is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Manulife. As a direct bank, it offers high-interest chequing & savings accounts, credit cards, lines of credit and mortgages, including Manulife One. Since it was established in 1993, Manulife Bank has grown to more than $29 billion in assets and serves customers across Canada. Manulife Bank headquarters are in Waterloo, Ontario.
Casey's General Stores, Inc. is a chain of convenience stores in the Midwestern and Southern United States. The company is headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines. As of October 1, 2023, Casey's had 2,500 stores in 16 states. Following 7-Eleven's purchase of Speedway, Casey's is the 3rd largest convenience store chain in the United States and the largest that is wholly American-owned. It is one of two Iowa-based Fortune 500 companies. Casey's is famous for their pizza including a breakfast pizza and a taco pizza resulting in Casey's being the fifth largest pizza chain in the U.S.
Lawson, Inc. is a convenience store franchise chain in Japan. The store originated in the United States in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, but exists today as a Japanese company based in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The company has its headquarters in East Tower of Gate City Ohsaki in Ōsaki, Shinagawa, Tokyo.
Circle K Sunkus was a chain of company-operated and franchised convenience stores in Japan. The company is a division of UNY Co., Ltd., which licensed the Circle K name from Alimentation Couche-Tard, a Canadian convenience store company that owns the Circle K brand.
Provigo is a grocery retailer based in Quebec, Canada, consisting of over 300 stores and franchises throughout the province. It operates a retailing chain of stores and distribution warehouses. It is owned by Loblaw Companies Limited.
On the Run is a flagship convenience store brand developed by ExxonMobil, used at Exxon and Mobil stations in the United States and at Esso and Mobil stations internationally. Alimentation Couche-Tard acquired the On the Run trademark and franchise network in the U.S. in 2009, and Parkland Fuel did the same in Canada in 2016; ExxonMobil retains full ownership of the brand in the rest of the world.
The Pantry, Inc. was a publicly traded convenience store chain based in Cary, North Carolina that operated Kangaroo Express stores. The Pantry was founded in 1967 by Sam Wornom and Truby Proctor, Jr. in Sanford, North Carolina The company has been publicly traded since June 1999 and owned by investors since 1987, when then investor Montrose Capital purchased controlling shares from Wornom and Proctor. Recent CEOs have included the former chairman of the board and interim CEO Edwin J. Holman, who took over after Terrance M. Marks, the former president and CEO, resigned in December 2011. Dennis Hatchell was the CEO of the company as of 2012.
Becker's is a Canadian chain of independent convenience stores selling products of Alimentation Couche-Tard company. The original Becker Milk Company was founded in 1957 in Toronto, Ontario. The chain grew from 5 to 500 stores and was sold in 2006 to Alimentation Couche-Tard. The company converted the company-owned stores to Mac's Milk and later to Circle K, leaving a remnant of affiliate Becker's stores. Starting in 2013, Alimentation Couche-Tard began expanding the affiliate program. There are now over 40 stores in Ontario.
Extra was a Mexican convenience store chain owned by Grupo Modelo, which started operations in 1993. In 2007 the chain closed 650 stores and in 2009 started another restructuring plan. It competes fiercely with OXXO from Femsa, 7-Eleven from Casa Chapa, SuperCity from Soriana and Circle K from Alimentation Couche-Tard. The point of sale is provided by IBM. In 2014, Grupo Modelo, a brewery owned by AB InBev, sold its Extra stores to Couche-Tard.
Holiday Stationstores is a chain of gasoline and convenience stores in the United States. It is part of the second largest convenience store chain in the world, with over 500 locations in 10 states. Stationstores are located in Alaska, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. It is based in Bloomington, Minnesota. Holiday ranked 133rd on Forbes' list of America's largest private companies before its 2017 acquisition. In July 2017, Holiday was acquired by Canadian-based convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard.
CST Brands, Inc. was an American publicly traded fuel and convenience retailer. It was the second-largest of its kind in North America, with 1,900 outlets in the U.S. and Canada. CST Brands had 2013 revenues of about $12.8 billion and made approximately $360 million in EBITDA. Stores were concentrated in the central and southwestern U.S. states and in eastern Canada. Corner Store was the firm's primary retail brand in the US and in Canada's English speaking provinces. In Canada's French speaking provinces, Dépanneur du Coin was the company's retail brand. In addition to convenience store retail sales, CST Brands also sold fuel under a number of licensed energy brands such as Valero, Exxon, Shell, and Phillips 66.
National Convenience Stores Incorporated is a convenience store company headquartered in Houston, Texas. Its primary subsidiary, Stop-N-Go Foods Inc., is/was the company controlling the convenience stores.
Topaz is a Polish supermarket in Eastern Poland. The company was founded in 1993, by Zbigniew Paczóski and the head office is located in Sokołów Podlaski.
Parkland Corporation is a Calgary, Alberta-based energy and retail company. Parkland operates gas stations under the Pioneer, Columbia Fuels, Ultramar, Chevron, and Fas Gas Plus brands, as well as franchised Esso locations. The company holds the rights to the convenience store brand On the Run in Canada and most of the United States, and franchises White Spot's fast food restaurant chain Triple O's in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario. Parkland also operates commercial oil and gas businesses under the Bluewave Energy, Sparlings, and Ultramar brands.
Richard Fortin is a Canadian billionaire businessman, and a director, co-founder and former chief financial officer and chairman of the convenience store chain Couche-Tard.
Jacques D'Amours is a Canadian billionaire businessman, and a director and co-founder of the convenience store chain Couche-Tard.