7 Eleven, Couche-Tard\u2019s main competitor in the United States, appeared at number 35, a frustration for the Laval company. Couche-Tard sat at number 25 in 2009, but has appeared in the bottom quarter of the list ever since.<\/p>\n
Couche-Tard\u2019s status as the only Canadian company on the list wasn\u2019t evident because it opened an American head office in Tempe, Arizona in 2010. Still, Couche-Tard remains within Laval, something that forced American Hannasch to move to Quebec earlier this year.<\/p>\n
The Laval-based convenience store powerhouse Couche-Tard announced a major change in management two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Couche-Tard founder Alain Bouchard will be replaced by his current chief operating officer Brian Hannasch. The transition will take place on September 24 during the shareholders\u2019 annual meeting.<\/p>\n
Despite the changeover in management, Bouchard, Real Plourde and Richard Fortin still hold the vast majority of the companies\u2019 voting shares. Those voting rights remain in effect until a fourth original founder, Jacques D\u2019Amour, turns 65 in 2021.<\/p>\n
I see this change as an evolution,\u201d said Bouchard when the announcement was made last week. \u201cIt will let me invest more of my time in acquisitions and new industry opportunities. I will also take part in the strategic discussions and serve as a mentor and coach to our next generation of leaders.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Hannasch and Bouchard spoke to reporters about the change in leadership during a conference call last week.<\/p>\n
They addressed four major issues: residence, language, government regulation and unions.<\/p>\n
Hannasch\u2019s official residence remains in Columbus, Indiana but he has also had an apartment in downtown Montreal since November. \u00a0His family will join him in Quebec when he starts his official duties next fall.<\/p>\n
Hannasch excused his inability to speak French with a single sentence. \u201cThe reality is I am an American and English is my native tongue.\u201d<\/p>\n
He does plan to take language lessons, but Bouchard made the point that people in most of the locations where Couche-Tard operates speak English. The company operates 6,221\u00a0convenience stores throughout North America in 38\u00a0states and ten provinces in Canada. It employs more than 60,000\u00a0people.<\/p>\n
The two also presented diverse opinions about the new laws the Parti Quebecois plans to give Quebec companies facing hostile take-overs. Hannasch spoke about his reluctance to have private companies controlled by too much government regulation, while Bouchard said he\u2019d appreciate more rights.<\/p>\n
Hannasch shares Bouchard\u2019s stance on unions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re onside on that issue,\u201d he said before Bouchard interrupted him to say that they don\u2019t have any further comment.<\/p>\n
The issue is particularly thorny right now. *Couche-Tard and the CSN settled a long-standing court case last October. Their settlement included compensation for 24 workers at two Montreal stores that closed after being unionized.<\/p>\n
Today, six outlets in the Montreal area are unionized (St-Liboire at the 145 exit of highway 20; Longueuil, 1400 boul. \u00c9douard, arrondissement St-Hubert; Victoriaville\u00a0at 260 rue Notre-Dame Ouest; Boisbriand, 1000 Grande-All\u00e9e) and two in Montreal (18,401 Antoine-Faucon, Pierrefonds-Roxboro and 6331 Henri-Bourassa, Montr\u00e9al-Nord).<\/p>\n
Couche-Tard and the CSN now take turns communicating how the other treats workers.<\/p>\n
*An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the settled court case.<\/p>\n
Note: This article appeared on page 17 of the City edition of the\u00a0Suburban<\/a>\u00a0on April 2, 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year\u2019s increased net earnings should help keep Alimentation Couche-Tard among the top 100 retailers in the United States even after longtime CEO Alain Bouchard steps down on September 24. The Laval-based powerhouse earned a net of $812.2 million during their 2014 fiscal year, which ended on April 27. The figure was 41.8% higher than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[238,239,237,136,240],"class_list":["post-15622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hundredmilecircle","tag-alain-bouchard","tag-brian-hannasch","tag-couche-tard","tag-laval","tag-september-24","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15622"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15888,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15622\/revisions\/15888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}