A Couche-Tard convenience store in Montreal.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc reported a quarterly profit that topped analysts’ estimates on Wednesday as the world’s second-biggest convenience store operator benefited from higher fuel sales.
The company’s same-store fuel volumes rose 0.6 per cent in the United States, its biggest market, while same-store merchandise revenue was up 4.2 per cent.
Couch-Tard’s fuel retail business, which includes more than 8,000 outlets in the United States, rose 59.8 per cent to $11 billion.
Revenue from its convenience stores, which include brands such as CST, Holiday and Circle K, rose 27.6 per cent to $3.55 billion.
Couch-Tard bought Texas-based CST in August 2016 for $4.4 billion to expand its footprint in the southwestern United States.
Net income attributable to the company rose to $455.6 million, or 81 cents per share, in the first quarter ended July 22 from $364.7 million, or 64 cents per share, a year earlier.
Total revenue rose 50.2 per cent to $14.79 billion.
Excluding items, the company earned 88 cents per share.
Analysts, on average, were expecting the company to report a profit of 82 cents and revenue of $13.87 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.