Couche-Tard and Irving Oil expand partnership to Atlantic Canada

Irving Oil Ltd. is handing over operation of 128 of its Atlantic Canada convenience stores to convenience retail company Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.

The companies said Thursday the new arrangement covers 252 Irving Oil convenience-store sites, which will be leased and operated by Couche-Tard.

Of the 252 Irving Oil stores involved in the new agreement, 128 are in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island. The other 124 are in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont.

The change will see Couche-Tard branding the stores that used to bear the Irving Mainway or Blue Canoe names. It won't affect Irving Big Stops or independent gas stations that buy fuel from the company.

The agreement builds on a seven-year-old deal in Quebec between family-owned Irving Oil and Couche-Tard, North America's second-largest convenience-store operator, with about 5,700 locations under the Couche-Tard, Mac's, Circle K and other banners.

Irving Oil will retain ownership of the properties and supply petroleum products to them. Couche-Tard will have 20-year leases and run the stores under its banners, while the fuel pumps will remain Irving-branded.

"We don't plan to change any product offering coming in," said Michel Bernard, eastern Canada's vice-president of operations for Couche-Tard. "The Atlantic people are high consumers of Irving products. If customer tell us we should keep the products, we'll keep them."

The arrangement is a "marriage made in convenience retail heaven," said Harry Hadiaris, marketing director with Irving Oil. It will allow Irving to combine its fuel brand with Couche-Tard's marketing and innovation, Hadiaris said.

Financial details of the arrangement were not disclosed.