The familiar Mac’s Milk logo with the winking owl is how most of us know the Quebec-based mammoth Alimentation Couche-Tard. Next time you step into the Mac’s at Sunnybrook Plaza or the On-the-run store in the Esso station at Merton and Mt Pleasant, you will be visiting one of the most profitable companies in the country. The name means Night Owl Supply more or less in English. Last year Couche Tard purchased a 2300-location gas bar chain from the Norwegian company StatOil ASA. The oil producer had spun off its retailing business and collected some $2.8 billion for it from Couche Tard. Now the payoff. Yesterday Couche Tard reported that its quarterly profit more than doubled compared with a year ago — $255 million, up from $102.9 million. Couche Tard, already the largest convenience store operator in North America, now has locations similar to the On-the-run grocery and gas outlets in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Russia.Night owl mines gas-bar gold in Europe
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The familiar Mac’s Milk logo with the winking owl is how most of us know the Quebec-based mammoth Alimentation Couche-Tard. Next time you step into the Mac’s at Sunnybrook Plaza or the On-the-run store in the Esso station at Merton and Mt Pleasant, you will be visiting one of the most profitable companies in the country. The name means Night Owl Supply more or less in English. Last year Couche Tard purchased a 2300-location gas bar chain from the Norwegian company StatOil ASA. The oil producer had spun off its retailing business and collected some $2.8 billion for it from Couche Tard. Now the payoff. Yesterday Couche Tard reported that its quarterly profit more than doubled compared with a year ago — $255 million, up from $102.9 million. Couche Tard, already the largest convenience store operator in North America, now has locations similar to the On-the-run grocery and gas outlets in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Russia.