Couche Tard makes ‘friendly’ approach to acquire 7-Eleven parent company

7-Eleven operates 85,000 stores globally, including 23,000 in Japan and approximately 13,000 in the US | Photo credit: 7-Eleven

Canadian convenience store giant Alimentation Couche-Tard has sent a ‘friendly, non-binding proposal’ to acquire 7-Eleven owner Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd. 
 

The proposed deal for Seven & i would see Couche-Tard acquire 7-Eleven’s 85,000 stores globally, including 23,000 in Japan and approximately 13,000 in the US. 
 

Coffee is a key part of 7-Eleven’s convenience retail offering and its acquisition would significantly boost Alimentation Couche-Tard's value-focused hot and cold beverage reach.  

While Couche-Tard did not disclose the sum of its offer, news of the deal prompted shares of Seven & i to jump by 23% on 19 August 2024, valuing the retail conglomerate at approximately ¥5.6trn ($38bn). 

In a press release, Seven & i confirmed it had received the preliminary acquisition proposal and formed a Special Committee of the Board of Directors to review. 

Founded in the US in 1927, 7-Eleven began selling fresh-brewed coffee in the US in 1964 and holds claim to inventing the coffee to-go format with ‘coffee by the cup’. Today, 7-Eleven maintains a focus on value, with some beverages costing less than $2 for 7Rewards loyalty members.

In 2014, the convenience chain was reported to be selling more than one million cups of coffee globally every day. According to Fairtrade, 7-Eleven sold 80 million cups of coffee in Australia alone during 2022. 

In 2009, the convenience store chain further developed its food and beverage proposition with the launch of 7CAFÉ in Hong Kong, a sit-in café concept serving barista-prepared beverages and hot meals. 7CAFÉ, which serves 100% Rainforest Alliance-certified arabica coffee, is now present within 700 7-Eleven stores in Hong Kong and has also launched Malaysia and Singapore. 

In 2023, 7-Eleven rolled out self-serve bean-to-cup coffee machines across its US stores, offering customers a choice of origins, blends and decaf, milks and syrups, alongside a nitro and iced coffee range. 

Alimentation Couche-Tard operates more than 16,700 convenience, quick service and petrol station outlets in North America, Europe and Asia through its Circle K, Couche-Tard and Ingo quick-service businesses.  

Its largest business, Circle K, is one of the largest convenience brands with a coffee offer in North America, with more than 7,100 stores across the US and a further 2,100 in Canada, serving over 120 million cups of coffee annually via its bean-to-cup self-serve coffee machines.  

Couche-Tard, which will see Chief Operating Officer Alex Miller assume the CEO role in September 2023, continues to significantly invest in its coffee offer despite scrapping Circle K’s in-store beverage subscription in the US in April 2024. 

In January 2023, Circle K launched a nationwide marketing campaign in the US to ‘bust perceptions on convenience store coffee’, with consumers taking part in a blind coffee tasting giving it a ‘resounding vote of confidence’ in its products.   

Originally founded in the US, 7-Eleven launched in Japan in 1974. Japanese supermarket chain and Seven-Eleven Japan parent company Ito-Yokado acquired a 70% controlling stake in the business in 1991, before making it a wholly owned subsidiary of its newly formed Seven & i Holdings company in 2005. 

Seven & i, which also has interests in supermarkets, financial services, franchised restaurants and entertainment, posted 2023 revenues of ¥17.8trn ($127.2bn).