Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. announced Monday its financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2026 for the quarter ended April 26, with significant revenue growth as annual revenue rose by 5% to more than $76 billion.
Alex Miller, President and Chief Executive Officer, said: “Our focus on delivering on our customer promise through our Core + More strategy is driving strong momentum across our U.S. business, with improved traffic and ongoing growth in key categories such as food and packaged beverages; meanwhile, our teams are leaning into the strength and agility of our fuel supply chain as well as our global scale to capture opportunities across our network as market conditions evolve. Overall, the commitment and resilience of our teams is reinforcing the progress we are making in the business as we continue to win in the markets we serve.”
Filipe Da Silva, Chief Financial Officer, added: “We delivered a solid fourth quarter to close the year, driven by the quality of our underlying results, even excluding the impact of certain favorable items. Disciplined execution enabled us to maintain our normalized growth of expenses1 below inflation, protecting profitability while continuing to invest in the business to support improved return metrics. Our results highlight the consistency and durability of our earnings and reinforce our confidence as we continue delivering against our Core + More strategy into the new fiscal year.”
The company said revenues were $19.5 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, up by $3.2 billion, an increase of 19.8% compared with the corresponding quarter of fiscal 2025, mainly attributable to higher average road transportation fuel selling price, the contribution from acquisitions, the impact from the translation of its European operations into US dollars and organic growth in its convenience activities, partly offset by softness in fuel demand. The translation of its foreign currency operations into US dollars had a net positive impact of approximately $526 million on itsrevenues for the fourth quarter.
For fiscal 2026, it said revenues increased by $3.6 billion, or 5.0%, compared with fiscal 2025, mainly attributable to the contribution from acquisitions, the impact from the translation of its European operations into US dollars, organic growth in its convenience activities and the net impact from organic changes to its network, partly offset by a lower average road transportation fuel selling price, softness in fuel demand and the impact of regulatory divestiture related to the GetGo acquisition. The translation of its foreign currency operations into US dollars had a net positive impact of approximately $2 billion on its revenues.
Quarterly highlights, according to Couche-Tard
- Successful issuance of Euro-denominated senior unsecured notes of €750.0 million ($882.0 million).
- Net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Corporation were $863.4 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 compared with $439.4 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025. Adjusted net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Corporation were approximately $667.0 million compared with $441.0 million for the corresponding quarter of last year, representing an increase of 51.2%. Net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Corporation were adjusted, among other items, by the net recovery on the resolution and remeasurement of certain long-standing legal matters for a pre-tax amount of $260.9 million.
- Net earnings attributable to shareholders of the Corporation were $0.94 per diluted share for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 compared with $0.46 per diluted share for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025. Adjusted diluted net earnings per share were $0.73, representing an increase of 58.7% from $0.46 for the corresponding quarter of last year.
- Total merchandise and service revenues of $4.5 billion, an increase of 7.7%. Same-store merchandise revenues increased by 3.4% in the United States, and by 1.1% in Europe and other regions, while it decreased by 0.9% in Canada. Consolidated same-store merchandise revenues increased by 2.2%.
- Merchandise and service gross margin increased by 0.5% in the United States to 34.4%, and by 1.0% in Europe and other regions to 39.6%, while it decreased by 0.6% in Canada to 33.5%.
- Same-store road transportation fuel volumes decreased by 2.1% in the United States, and by 4.4% in Europe and other regions, while it increased by 2.0% in Canada.
- Road transportation fuel gross margin of 52.44¢ per gallon in the United States, an increase of 9.17¢ per gallon, US 13.44¢ per liter in Europe and other regions, an increase of US 3.87¢ per liter, and CA 17.28¢ per liter in Canada, an increase of CA 3.23¢ per liter.
Fiscal Year 2026 highlights, according to Couche-Tard
- Net earnings per diluted share of $3.37 compared with $2.71 for fiscal 2025, an increase of 24.4%, while adjusted diluted net earnings per share were $3.10 compared with $2.71 for fiscal 2025, an increase of 14.4%.
- During fiscal 2026, it repurchased 30.0 million shares for an amount of $1.6 billion.
- Strong improvement on return on capital employed, increasing from 12.2% to 13.7%, driven by robust earnings, which include the net recovery on the resolution and remeasurement of certain long-standing legal matters, which had a favourable impact of 0.8% on this metric.
- Solid pipeline execution with 103 new-to-industry openings, and 27 relocated or reconstructed stores, reaching a total of 130 stores during fiscal 2026. As of April 26, 2026, another 34 stores were under construction and should open in the upcoming quarters.
- Increase in the annual dividend declared for fiscal 2026 of 10.5%, from CA 76.00¢ to CA 84.00¢.
Couche-Tard is a global leader in convenience and mobility, operating in 27 countries and territories, with close to 17,300 stores, of which approximately 13,200 offer road transportation fuel. With its well-known Couche-Tard and Circle K banners, it is one of the largest independent convenience store operators in the United States and it is a leader in the convenience store industry and road transportation fuel retail in Canada, Scandinavia, the Baltics, Belgium, as well as in Ireland. It also has an important presence in Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, as well as in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Approximately 145,000 people are employed throughout its network.
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