MONTREAL / QUEBEC CITY (Reuters) – A political challenge that killed a $ 20 billion bid for Canadian convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard to French retailer Carrefour on Friday is unlikely to end the global ambitions of founder Alain Bouchard.
The renowned Canadian businessman built Couche-Tard from a single store in Quebec in 1980 to a global network of utility stores and gas stations with a market value of $ 33 billion, with 66 properties on the way.
French politicians strongly opposed the proposed adoption, saying it was a national food safety issue. Behind the scenes, Bouchard made a wrong move by not giving early heads to French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who was deeply saddened to learn about the agreement from the media, a source familiar with the case to Reuters.
Bouchard, 72, who was a Couche-Tard chief executive for 25 years until 2014, entered business after learning hard lessons as a child when his father, a subcontractor, went bankrupt.
“Couche-Tard is a master at converting dollars spent on gas into dollars spent on food store and convenience products,” Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University Nova Scotia .
“You fill your car with gas and then you get a sandwich, a newspaper and a cigarette.”
But a global shift toward electric vehicles would ultimately upset that model, Charlebois noted, adding that the construction of Carrefour could be a way for the retailer to diversify its strategy. .
Bouchard, chairman of the company’s current executive, declined to be interviewed for this story.
‘A STRETCH’
The Quebec chain grew in Canada through the 1980s and 1990s before making a major breakthrough into the dispersed U.S. market in the early 2000s, first acquiring Johnson Oil Co., and then Circle K Corp. . Once, when a banker suggested he was also ambitious, Bouchard turned banks around, according to a local media report.
Alain Bouchard is “an entrepreneurial hero, a self-made man, a self-taught man,” said his friend Mitch Garber, who was in charge of Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil.
Garber will not buy the French minister’s arguments, saying they are “stretched”.
“If Carrefour was arming the French army I would understand,” he said. “They sell food. ”
Despite the endless level of purchases, the company has maintained its entrepreneurial approach to business, said top-10 shareholder of Couche-Tard.
Couche-Tard has missed previous contracts and is looking for more.
Couche-Tard CEO Brian Hannasch told Fortune in August “more activity will be caused by the pandemic,” after the planned $ 5.6 billion build of Australian petrol station operator Caltex in April.
Bouchard, who relaxes with opera and delivers arts and culture, people with mental disabilities, education and health care, has strong support from stakeholders.
“He’s a real head writer,” said the chief shareholder at Couche-Tard, pointing out that there is the least amount of opportunity in terms of both business model and geographic area. But history is a guide for investors. “There is definitely something to be done for these people to have a great history.”
($ 1 = 1.2732 Canadian dollars)
Additional commentary by Maiya Keida in Toronto, Pamela Barbaglia in London and Gwénaëlle Barzic in Paris; Written by Denny Thomas; Edited by Peter Henderson and Jacqueline Wong