Dive Brief:
- Alimentation Couche-Tard has named Trey Powell as senior vice president of food and retail for its U.S. business, a company spokesperson confirmed to C-Store Dive.
- Powell, who has been Couch-Tard’s SVP of global merchandising since late 2023, will now lead the company’s U.S. food, merchandising, marketing, private brand, supply chain strategy, sourcing and procurement, according to the spokesperson.
- Powell’s promotion comes as Couch-Tard continues to tout ambitious growth plans for both its retail and foodservice segments. It intends to add 750 locations to its c-store network through 2031 and hit record food revenues in the U.S.
Dive Insight:
In a video presented to Couche-Tard’s investors earlier this week, Powell said that in leading the global merchandising business, he’s been tasked with optimizing how the company sources and distributes food products to its retail locations at scale.
Powell said that over the past year, he’s helped Couche-Tard double the number of owned distribution centers serving its North American network, as well as increase the output from its commissary facility. The latter supplies about 40% of items in Couche-Tard’s proprietary Fresh Food, Fast program as well as non-frozen products to hundreds of locations.
That depth of experience gives Powell a solid backbone to now spearhead the company’s retail and food operations in the U.S., Couche-Tard’s largest market with over 7,300 locations. He’ll be tasked with helping Couche-Tard reach its goal to grow U.S. food revenue at four times the pace of merchandise revenue in the U.S.
Powell has held roles in marketing and merchandising, store operations, procurement, and mergers and acquisitions as part of a 22-year career with Couche-Tard. Those have included VP of merchandising and operations, senior director of marketing, director of marketing and merchandising, director of retail operations and director of national procurement, according to his company bio.
Powell left Couche-Tard in 2013 to become VP of marketing and merchandising for Tom Thumb convenience stores when the banner was owned by Kroger. He returned back to Couche-Tard in 2015, per his LinkedIn bio.
Powell’s promotion is one of three executive changes Couche-Tard is making atop its country leadership teams. The company has also promoted Hélène Drolet to VP of Canada food and retail and Gordon Lawlor to SVP of Europe merchandising, food and marketing, according to the spokesperson. According to their LinkedIn bios, Drolet had been Couche-Tard’s VP of operation excellence in North America since late 2022, and Lawlor was managing director of Circle K Norway since early 2024.
“This [series of promotions] reflects the different realities of the markets where we operate and allows us to make faster decisions closer to our customers, with resources focused on each geography while continuing to leverage the full scale of our business,” Couche-Tard’s spokesperson said in a statement to C-Store Dive.
The three executive shifts come after news that both Mette Uglebjerg, SVP of global food and marketing, and Niall Anderton, SVP of strategy and transformation, will leave the company in May for other opportunities. Couche-Tard’s spokesperson confirmed that there are no plans to backfill Powell’s or Uglebjerg’s roles, while he did not comment on Anderton’s position.
