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Operator
Good morning, my name is Eric and I will be your conference operator today. Bonjour, je m'appelle Eric et je serai votre opérateur pour la conférence aujourd'hui. I will now introduce Mr. Mathieu Brunet, Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasury at Alimentation Couchetard. Je vais maintenant passer la parole à Mr. Mathieu Brunet, Vice President, Relations Investisseurs et Trésorerie
Mathieu Brunet
English will follow. Bonjour. J'aimerais d'abord vous souhaiter la bienvenue à la téléconférence qui porte sur la diffusion des résultats financiers du troisième trimestre de l'exercice 2024 d'alimentation couche-tard. Toutes les lignes seront placées en mode discrétion afin d'éviter tout bruit inutile. À la suite de la présentation, nous répondrons en direct aux questions des analystes. We would like to remind you that this web broadcast will be available on our website for a period of 90 days. In addition, note that some of the topics discussed during this web broadcast may consist of prospective statements provided by the Society with usual warnings. These warnings or risks, as well as these uncertainties, are described in our financial reports. It is therefore possible that our future results may differ from the information presented today. Les résultats financiers seront présentés par Monsieur Brian Hanesh, Président et Chef de la Direction, et Monsieur Philippe Da Silva, Chef de la Direction Financière. Good morning. I would like to welcome everyone to this web conference presenting Alimentation Couchetard's financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2024. All lines will be kept on mute to prevent any background noise. After the presentation, we will answer questions from analysts asked live during the web conference. We would like to remind everyone that this webcast presentation will be available on our website for a 90-day period. Also, please remember that some of the issues discussed during this webcast might be forward-looking statements, which are provided by the corporation with its usual caveats. These caveats or risks and uncertainties are outlined in our financial reporting. Therefore, our future results could differ from the information discussed today. Our financial results will be presented by Mr. Brian Anish, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Felipe Da Silva, Chief Financial Officer. Brian, you may begin your conference.
Brian
All right, thank you, Matthew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our presentation of our third quarter results. As we continue to navigate some near-term headwinds, particularly in the U.S., we remain focused on providing value needs for our customers with a growing selection of private label options continued rollout of our Inner Circle loyalty program, which now has 1,600 members, including almost 5 million fully enrolled members in the U.S. And then we continue to execute on recurring Circle K Fuel promo days, bringing value to our customers. All these offers are providing meaningful rewards and compelling value, especially for our more cash-strapped cost consumers that are out there. However, our business is extremely diversified around the globe, And we feel very good about its proven resilience and the continued focus on our strategy, building on our key points of differentiation with our customers and maximizing the advantages of our scale. We're especially pleased this quarter with the significant growth in our network. In January, we closed in the acquisition from Total Energies, welcoming four new countries, nearly 22,000 new team members, and 2,175 sites into the Custar family. We have a strong track record of successful integrations and realization of synergies, and we're proud of how the transition is progressing to date. We've identified local leadership, rebranded our first two Circle K locations, one in Berlin, the other in the Netherlands, and we're well on our way. We're working closely with our new, highly engaged teams to test new programs and share best practices. As previously reported with this acquisition, we have an ambition to unlock synergies of approximately $187 million over the five years, and we have a clear, well-structured plan to make that happen. We're also advancing nicely on the integration of 112 macro sites that we closed on last quarter, including the rebranding of many of these stores. We're excited to have these locations and team members as part of our family as we increase our presence in the southern part of the U.S. On the organic front, we're making good progress on our five-year goal of building 500 new industry stores. We're on track to open about 100 in North America in this first year, and we have a great pipeline for the coming years. Now I'm going to turn to the results for the quarter, beginning with our convenience business. Compared to the same quarter last year, same-store merchandise revenue decreased by 1.5% in the United States, by 0.3% in Europe and other regions, and by 1.2% in Canada. As I mentioned earlier, these results were impacted by near-term headwinds in the economy, as well as the continued softness in the cigarette category, partly offset by the growth in other nicotine products, which I'll go into more detail later. It's worth noting that Europe really has had good performance during the quarter, with a positive 2.6% same for sales growth. However, the overall Europe and other region results were impacted by weak results in Hong Kong, driven by a very large tax increase on cigarettes and continued softness in tourism. In the U.S., we continue to focus on the expansion of Inner Circle. As a free membership program with rewards, fuel rewards, food rewards, and much more, Inner Circle is providing a differentiated, personalized experience to our most loyal and valuable customers. I'm pleased to report that registrations and full enrollments have doubled over the quarter, and we continue to see steady growth in enrollments in the program. We now have over 4,000 locations on Inner Circle, and we've expanded to three new business units in early March, bringing the total to 10 and covering over 30 states in the U.S. We're seeing that our highest penetration sites that have more than 25% of their transactions coming from Inner Circle, are outperforming our non-loyalty sites, and that these loyal customers are visiting our locations more frequently and with a higher basket. In Europe, our updated Extra Loyalty Program continues to perform well, is now fully rolled out in the Baltics, with plans to bring it to Ireland in the new fiscal year. We're also piling a new tier-based concept in Scandinavia to drive both fuel volume and store traffic, being based on visits versus purchases. Across the network, Press2Fast is now in more than 5,700 locations globally. Over the quarter, our operations teams have focused on improving execution and profitability. Margins in profitability are up materially year over year. However, as we continue this journey of building our food culture, we need to ensure availability and in-stock during our busiest times of the day. In our quest to have what our customers want when they want it, while making it easier for our team members, we're excited to be rolling out a new forecasting production tool in North America that leverages AI to more accurately determine demand on a site-by-site and time-of-day basis. Sampling has also increased across our business units as we promote our food offer and try to gain trial. Winning the thirst occasion is a core part of our long-term strategy. And in this quarter, packaged beverage sales were up across the network with especially strong performance in Europe due to well-executed initiatives, including a first-to-launch Red Bull purple can in Europe, and an always-on value, multi-buy beverages in Ireland. Alcohol sales were also strong in Europe. In the U.S., we announced an exclusive partnership with Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures in conjunction with the upcoming film, Godzilla X- The New Empire, which will be introducing five exclusive limited-time offers, including two exciting new froster flavors, and branded cups. Also in the U.S., where alcohol sales have been a bit soft, we're leveraging aggressive promotional activity to drive volume, present value, and gain share. As I mentioned earlier, we continue to see pressure on cigarette units globally, while power usage continues to grow, driving strong growth in other nicotine products in the quarter. In the U.S., we have initiatives underway with our supply partners, including brand-focused contests and personalization programs for our age-verified customers. Here we're starting to see positive results with gains in market share as we look to stay relevant and provide choice to our nicotine consumers. In Europe, other nicotine remains strong with Ireland leading the way following successful new launches of new products. Moving to our fuel business, same sort of transportation fuel decreased by 0.8% in the US, 1.9% in Europe and other regions, and increased 0.2% in Canada. During the quarter, Demand was certainly impacted by economic uncertainty, particularly in diesel, which was significantly weaker than gasoline. In that context, when we compare results to industry data and our public peers, we're pleased with our results and remain positive about our long-term initiatives to gain share in the fuel space. Over the quarter, we had healthy fuel margins across the network, and we're continuing to build value for our customers and business through the optimization of our fuel supply chain globally. While the advantage model we've developed does better in periods of higher volatility, this was not the case this quarter. Our increased trading supply and logistic capabilities continue to capture opportunities. In North America, our partnership with Muscat empowers us to explore new and lower cost sourcing options while ensuring we maintain supply across their network. In Europe, our newly built fuel supply and trading capability, which we based in Geneva, is moving forward to integrate our supply chains for expanding counterparty engagement and new supply paths. As our B2B business continued with solid growth in Europe, we are gaining traction in the U.S. B2B business where we believe we have tremendous opportunities. Our Circle K Pro proprietary card platform is seeing for positive momentum and volumes as new initiatives and strategic partnerships are bringing in fuel customers. While we continue to invest in developing our U.S. B2B offer with simple self-serve solutions, easier site experiences, and compelling inner circle offers. Also, our network of more than 440 high-speed diesel truck sites is growing as we expand our offer of diesel, DEF, and relevant services for the long and short haul trucking. Our EV fast charging network now consists of more than 2,400 charging points, including those in our four new European countries, and 50 charge points for heavy trucks in Sweden. We're seeing a significant increase in charging actions on our Circle K branded chargers, driven by network expansion, improved payment offers, and station upgrades making it easier for our EV customers. North America, we remain committed to deploying chargers at 200 sites. Our footprint in Canada now covers Quebec, Ontario, BC, and Alberta, and 11 states in the U.S. Before I conclude, I want to mention the important work that we're doing in North America to improve retention and turnover at our stores. In Operations First culture, we're investing in our team members in areas that they care about, including benefits, training, and engagement. As a result, we're seeing notable improvement in turnover, both in our associate and manager ranks, and we're doing significantly better in the industry when compared to recently released NACS data. We're also continuing to implement solutions that reduce administrative hours, making it easier for our store teams, allowing them to focus on serving our customers. We are continuing the evolution of our easy office program and gaining efficiency in store labor hours through automation. We're also bringing our successful European inventory management program to North America to help simplify the ordering process and enable more informed store merchandising decisions, which we believe and we've shown in Europe will lead to better stock conditions.
Demand
And with that, I'll turn it over to Philippe to go more deeply into the results. Philippe?
Philippe
Thank you, Ryan. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Our commitment to discipline operational cost control has led to a 1.6% reduction in normalized expenses, a performance that is notably better than the weighted average of inflation affecting our business operations. This standout achievement in the quarter highlights our commitment to financial prudence and operational excellence, even amid widespread economic challenges. A key highlight of our capital structure initiatives this quarter was the issuance of a new $500 million Canadian five-year unsecured notes. Following the end of the quarter, we also priced private debt offerings, denominated in both US dollars and euros, achieving combined totals of $1.5 billion and 1.35 billion euros, respectively, across several tranches. These carefully planned financial actions strengthen our capital structure and set us on a firm path to execute our 10 for the win strategy successfully. I will now go over some key figures for the quarter. For more details, please refer to our MD&A available on our website. For the third quarter of fiscal 2024, net earnings attributable to shareholders of the corporation were $623.4 million of 65 cents per share on a diluted basis. Excluding certain items described in more detail in our MD&A, adjusted net earnings attributable to shareholders of the corporation were approximately $625 million, compared with $741 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2023. Adjusted diluted net earnings per share were 65 cents, representing a decrease of 12.2% from 74 cents for the corresponding quarter of last year. During the third quarter, excluding the net impact from foreign currency translation, merchandise and services revenue increased by approximately $62 million, or 1.2%. This increase is primarily attributable to the contribution from acquisitions partly offset by softness in traffic. Excluding the net impact from foreign currency translation, merchandise and service gross profit increased by approximately $48 million or 2.9%. This is primarily attributable to the contribution from acquisitions, which amounted to approximately $75 million, while partly offset by softness in traffic. Our gross margin decreased by 0.1% in the United States to 33.1%, increased by 1.9% in Canada to 34.2%, mainly due to pricing initiatives, and increased by 1.9% in Europe and other regions to 39.2%, mainly due to a change in product mix. Moving on to the fuel side of our business, In the third quarter of fiscal 2024, our road transportation fuel gross margin was 43.19 cents per gallon in the United States, a decrease of 3.66 cents per gallon, mostly driven by the low volatility of the global fuel markets. In Europe and other regions, our road transportation fuel margin was 8.56 cents per liter, an increase of 0.55 cents per liter per liter. In Canada, it was 12.99 cents Canadian per liter, an increase of 0.47 cents Canadian per liter. Notwithstanding the decline from previous levels, fuel gross margin remained healthy throughout our network. Now looking at SG&A for the third quarter of fiscal 2024, normalized operating expenses decreased by 1.6% year over year. This is mainly driven by the continued strategic effort to control our expenses, including labor efficiencies in our stores. Our Feed to Serve program is well underway and delivering tangible results across the organization. We are enhancing our centralized back office operation by extending its reach to areas such as HR, facility management, and customer contact, aiming at optimizing our cost structure by leveraging our scale while improving service levels and capabilities. Our control of expenses is evidenced by our reduction in normalized expense as disciplined cost control compensated the inflationary pressures, the impact of costs from rising minimum wages, as well as incremental investment to support our strategic initiatives. Excluding specific items described in more detail in our MD&A, the adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of fiscal 2024 decreased by $18.5 million, or 1.2%, compared with the corresponding quarter of fiscal 2023. mainly due to lower road transportation fuel growth profit and softness in traffic as a portion of our customers are impacted by challenging economic conditions while being partly upset by the contribution from acquisition which amounted to approximately 65 million dollars lower expenses as as well as the translation of our foreign currency operation into us dollar which had a net positive impact of approximately six million dollars From a tax perspective, the income tax rate for the third quarter of fiscal 2024 was 22%, compared with 21.9% for the corresponding period of fiscal 2023. The increase mainly stems from the impact of a different mix in our earnings across the various jurisdictions in which we operate. As of February 4th, 2024, our return on equity remained strong at 23.2% and our return on capital employed stood at 14.9%. During the fiscal year, our leverage ratio increased to 2.19, mainly due to the acquisition of certain European retail assets from Total Energy. Subsequent to the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2024, we issued US dollar-denominated and Euro-denominated senior and secured notes, totaling $1.5 billion and 1.35 billion euros, respectively. We also had strong balance sheet liquidity with $1 billion in cash and additional $2.8 billion available through our main revolving credit facility. Turning to the dividend, the Board of Directors declared yesterday a quarterly dividend of 17.5 cents Canadian per share for the third quarter of fiscal 2024 to shareholders on record as of April 1, 2024, and approved its payment effective April 15, 2024. With that, I thank you all for your attention and turn the call back over to Brian.
Brian
All right. Thank you, Felipe. Again, I want to welcome all of our new Total Energy and MAPCO team members to the family and thank everyone for the relentless focus on making it easy for our customers. We feel really good about our resilient and diversified business, relevance to our consumers, of our long-term strategy with our differentiated convenience and mobility offers, and the way in which we're increasing efficiencies and taking advantage of our global scale. We're also significantly expanding our footprint, both through acquisitions and organic growth, as we bring increased value to our customers, our team members, and our shareholders.
Demand
Now, with that, I'll turn it back to the operator to answer Amos' questions this morning.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press the star followed by the two. If you're using a speakerphone, please lift a handset before pressing any keys. Your first question comes from the line of Irene Nettel with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Irene Nettel
Thanks, and good morning, everyone. Could you – you provided some color, but can you please provide more detail around what you're seeing with respect to consumer spending, you know, where the pockets of weakness and maybe less weakness are, and also notably what you're seeing in terms of competitive response and how that plays into the gas margin environment?
Brian
Yeah, thanks, Irene. Happy to. In terms of fuel, you know, I think a lot of you would compare us to Opus, and we've pretty traditionally outperformed Opus by a wide margin. The model we've built, which we've gone up the supply chain a bit in certain key areas and certainly developed the supply and trading capabilities, really does and outperforms when we get periods of volatility that we can take advantage of, whether that be location ARBs, things like that, or buying in multiple different contracts or bases. And it was just a boring quarter, candidly. We didn't have any disruptions in any significant refining pads, either in New York or the U.S. And so, you know, this can happen. Our margins are not linear or flat. You know, they do have some volatility. But we feel good about, you know, the levels we're at. And we've seen no consumer behavior, or excuse me, competitive behavior changes that would lead us to believe that, you know, the margin profiles we've had over the last couple of years won't continue. On the consumer side, on the convenience side specifically, it's really that lower income consumer that we're seeing strain today. One example would be our EBT or SNAP, which is a U.S. federal government program for low-income consumers. Our SNAP volume or revenues were down 40% over the same period last year. And that's just a sign that, you know, that consumers, you know, being more value conscious, and we're seeing that show up in trip consolidations. The center store, so if you think about salty confectionery, grocery, is certainly the softest part of our business, while the beverages, which we think is a continued opportunity for both our industry and for Pustar to win, continues to perform fairly well. It was plus 2% in the U.S. as an example. So, again, it's that low-end consumer, and we can look geographically and see that where we've got lower-income consumers, our results are worse, and where we've got higher-income consumers, you know, the results are pretty stable.
Irene
That's great. Thanks, Brian.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Mark Petri with CIBC. Please go ahead.
Mark Petri
Yeah, thanks. Good morning. I wanted to ask about the gross margin performance specific to the U.S. merchandise business. Sales mix had been a tailwind in previous periods, and obviously that didn't net out, at least to a benefit this period. If you could just talk about sort of the drivers on the U.S. gross margin number and specifically the impact of sales mix. Thanks.
Brian
Yeah, thanks, Mark. Really, we signaled last quarter that we were going to make some investments toward the nicotine consumer, and that's really what you're seeing here. You know, we've been pleased with our results. You know, we were really mirroring the industry. If you look at Altria and Reynolds results, you know, our volumes were very similar. You know, this quarter, you know, with, I think, some very strategic investments, you know, we performed significantly better than overall industry in terms of tobacco units. But that has come with some investment in that category. So that's really been the driver. On the positive side, you know, our beverage margins continue to be solid. And we... Food margins are up almost 600 points over prior years. So again, we're very much still in our infancy in the food journey, but pleased that the profitability continues to improve dramatically. So you combine all that, but cigarettes was the biggest factor to your question, Mark.
Irene
Okay, perfect. I'll pass the line. Thanks a lot.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Michael Van Aelst with TD Cowan. Please go ahead.
Michael Van Aelst
Thanks, Brian. In your comments, you talked about your diversified business and how you feel good about its resilience. And I'm wondering, I guess, how long you expect this, you know, that some of the softness to last at this point and affecting some of that leverage that that you've been getting, particularly with the strong operating cost performance. And then, you know, I know it's early in the five year process. program, but at what point does the softness in consumer spending raise concerns about the organic growth components in that plan? And do you have some buffer in the cost savings or margin side to offset that shortfall, if any?
Brian
Yeah, I'll let Felipe talk about the cost programs. We've been very pleased with that, but he can go into more detail. In terms of the consumer, we absolutely believe it's transitory. We've got a segment of our consumer base that is strained and our focus is on providing them value and ease. That's why we're excited about our inner circle loyalty program that allows us to be very targeted, providing value to our most valuable customers on a very targeted basis, both in fuel and merchandise. And we think it's differentiated from a lot of the points or earn and burn programs that are out there. So, you know, we think that's going to help us gain share and gain traction. If you look at across the categories and focus on the U S right now, But the story is really the same in Europe and Canada. We gain share in the majority of our categories. And so as we emerge and cycle that, when we say cycle, I would say late Q1, early Q2, you know, we'll really cycle some of the pressures that not only we, but you look at our public imperators or really adjacent retail channels have shown the same weakness in that low-end consumer. You know, we think we largely cycle that, you know, again, Q1, early Q2, in our fiscal year. But again, gaining share of fuel, gaining share of merch, and we'll help the consumers get through this.
Irene
Lisa, do you want to comment on the call side?
Philippe
yeah so on the on the coast side yeah we we feel good about uh about uh you know what's happening across the the organization uh as i pointed out in in my comments earlier you know uh normalized expenses have uh have been going down by one point one point six percent uh we see um uh you know good productivity uh uh traction in in stores uh 2.8 percent lower hours compared to last year again across the the regions Coming to the Feed to Serve program, you know that we have announced the 800 million program over the five years. I'm happy to say that we have done significant progress in identifying and feeling comfortable about achieving this 800 million sooner than the five years that we announced. Just on the GNA, we had an ambition to find 50 million savings. I can tell you already that we already achieved that. So we are really doing very strong progress on the cost program. And to your question, yeah, we feel that we will be able to continue to see a good performance on the expensive side over the next quarters.
Michael Van Aelst
So no concerns on the five-year plan at this point, despite the short-term weakness in the consumer?
Brian
No, I think the key initiatives that we're focused on, we believe in, and again, we think that this is transitory. We don't think this weakness in that consumer base will persist over multiple years. And our focus is on continuing to build the advantages that we think we have today and widening them. And I'd remind, too, you know, this is probably, I think, the second quarter of my entire career that we've ever had negative comps. So, you know, we're certainly, you know, we're certainly taking this very seriously and focused on, you know, how do we help this customer. But if you look at the two-year stack, you know, we had a strong quarter last year. So two-year stack is still, and I'm talking U.S. specifically, is still plus 3.3. So, again, I think we'll cycle this and continue to gain share in our key categories.
Demand
Great. Thank you.
Operator
The next question comes from the line of Chris Lee with Desjardins. Please go ahead.
Chris Lee
Good morning, everyone. Brian, I think you've sort of answered this a bit earlier, just maybe going back to the U.S. view margins. If you look at some of the industry data, I think late January and February and March, so far they have kind of tapered down. And I'm just wondering if you can share with us your thoughts of what's driving that softness. Is that just, again, lack of volatility there? in the market, or is there anything sort of more structural within the industry? Thank you.
Brian
Yeah, again, I don't see changes in competitive behavior that would make me believe that something's changing. Industry, it's no secret, you know, we get compressed when prices go up. We benefit when prices come down. Price, when underlying don't do anything, you know, eventually that margin gets compressed. And that's just been the way it's been my entire career. And this has just been a very flat quarter, you know, no hurricanes, no major refinery issues in any parts of our geography. And so, you know, and again, that differentiated margin that we've been able to deliver, you know, quarter after quarter does best to have some volatility. So, you know, I've got no concerns, you know, I think short term, you know, we've got some pressures, but I don't think they're structural. I think it's more just the nature of the behavior of the market in recent quarters, the response.
Chris Lee
Okay. So you're still very happy with sort of, I think your low 40 cents, long-term target.
Brian
Yeah, I think four is a really solid number. And again, I think our opportunities to outperform the industry are more in those periods where we've got volatility. And that will happen. That will happen. I'd call it more unusual than not to have something as boring as this quarter has been, candidly.
Irene
Okay, great. Thank you. Thanks, Chris.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Tammy Chen with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Tammy Chen
Hi, thanks for the question. Brian, there's one thing that we've been looking at and we're just trying to wrap our heads around it is, you even got a slide on it on your quarterly presentation, is the industry break-even point has come down quite a bit compared to fiscal 21. But the industry's actual gross profit on a cents per gallon basis has really improved over that same time period. So whereas before the industry's breakeven point was worse than their actual gross profit, it's now reversed. And we're just wondering what you think about that with respect to how much other operators are leaning in on fuel margin or maybe less so now. I do understand that fuel volume and the cigarette category is still weak. So maybe that's just what you're seeing out there. People are still somewhat relying on fuel margin. But just find that reverse of breakeven to actual gross profit interesting. And so we just wanted to hear how you're thinking about that and if you're seeing anything different with respect to this dynamic. Thanks.
Brian
Thanks, Tammy. I'd be cautious about looking at that industry breakeven data on a quarterly basis. You know, I think about it in terms of longer term structural components. And when I think about the industry having, you know, fairly soft cigarette demand and some players not being as active in the poly space, you know, that's pressure. When I look at overall performance or inflation, you know, you can call it three and a half, you can call it four, depending on the market. We've been proud of our performance. I think we've outperformed inflation significantly. I don't think the industry's done that. So when you look at those two big components and then just overall weakness in that low-end consumer, my belief is that industry needs on fuel EPG are actually continuing to go up. And to that extent, we're focused on just making sure that we leverage both the scale that we have, the diversified geographic footprint, and creating a better consumer experience for our customers and our stores and gaining share in that category. We feel good about our long-term prospects to gain fuel market share.
Tammy Chen
Okay. And so I'm pivoting here. That's helpful. On the merchandise, so gathering from your answers to other questions, Would it be fair to say that the sequential deterioration in the U.S. merch comp is from that low-income group, whereas the challenges you've been experiencing on cigarettes, given some of the investments you did this quarter, would you say that dynamic is somewhat stable, or maybe you got a little bit better volumes on cigarettes this quarter versus Q15? Thanks.
Brian
Yeah, certainly when you look at our tobacco category, we feel good about the trends we have in units, which equates to trips, right? And that also equates to basket. We're not done with that journey. We're excited to be rolling on to Altria's personalization program, which allows us to distribute electronic coupons to millions of our customers that are funded by the supplier. That's something that is really available to only change on some scale. So we'll You know, we think we can continue to do significantly better than industry on units, but, Tammy, that certainly puts some deflation into that category. So when you look at our things for performance in the U.S., you know, if you took out tobacco or took out cigarettes specifically, you know, it would be better than that. But, again, we're building basket. We're, you know, working on traffic, so we think it's the right investment to make.
Irene
Thank you.
Operator
The next question comes from the line of Vishal Sridhar with National Bank. Please go ahead.
spk06
Hi. I was wondering if you can talk to us about what you're seeing in the M&A market, what you're seeing about multiples, and if you can remind us again what your focus is on in terms of M&A.
Brian
Yeah, thanks, Vishal. We continue to say that we'd love to do more in the U.S., which is probably our best market for synergies, and then being opportunistic in Canada and Europe. Without going into detail, I would say that the deal flow has been good, probably the best I've seen in four or five years in terms of the number of opportunities that are out there in front of us. There's not been a lot that's closed. A lot of this has been newer. So in terms of price, You know, I'll refrain a bit, and I certainly feel less competition from the private equity space than we had over the last three or four years. Yeah, I think there's an opportunity to get some things done at a better price. And some of that just has to happen with, you know, the interest rates being where they're at. And that's why I continue to be pleased that we're investment grade and have a balance sheet that's really for almost any opportunity that's out there in front of us. Our appetite's there, and we're actively looking at some things.
spk06
Okay, and maybe just in terms of the cadence of the investment that is made in order to accelerate that tobacco customer and just reinvigorate the merchandising business, is that complete, or do we expect more of that to heighten into the next quarter before you anniversary that?
Brian
I don't think that we need to go deeper. So if the question's around margins, I think the investment level we're making today and then the partnership that we have with Altria, which is Marlboro in the US, which is largely funded by them, that the activity we have out there combined with our inner circle program that allows us to be even more targeted, I feel pretty good that the investment level we're at today will allow us to continue to significantly outperform industry. and boost traffic in that category. Again, that's a great basket. That's just a great customer to have.
Irene
Thank you.
Operator
The next question comes from the line of Bonnie Herzog with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Bonnie Herzog
All right. Thank you. Good morning. So I had a question on how you're balancing pricing at the pump in the U.S. to drive traffic and then share. Well, at the same time, you know, trying to continue to capture these strong fuel margins. I guess, you know, when looking at the court, it seems like you were more aggressive with pricing at the pump. So hoping to hear a little bit more color on your strategy with that. And then could you touch on any changes you're seeing with conversion inside your store in light of, you know, some of the negative inside same store sales? And I'm just wondering, you know, are you seeing conversion moderating? And if so, you know, are there any other initiatives you might have to implement to maybe drive better conversion going forward? Thank you.
Brian
Thanks, Bonnie. Fuel pricing, we strive to be very consistent, provide a very consistent value message to our consumers every day. So we measure our deltas to our competitors, both near and far, on a very systematic basis. And we've remained very constant. And when we look at competitors, again, we don't see a big change in behavior. And certainly, we don't think we've changed our behavior. And again, it's around providing very consistent value. In terms of the pumped experience, it's kind of a tale of two cities. You know, that low-end consumer, two worlds, if you will. That low-end consumer, certainly reduction in trips, so less frequency, less traffic. And I think that's showing up inside the store, too, particularly center stores, as I said earlier. But then we've got you know, a broader consumer base, which is, you know, the fill per trip is actually up pretty significantly, which means there's a segment of that consumer base that, you know, is feeling pretty good or feeling normal. And so our fill has gone up almost a gallon per stop. So that's a positive. And premium has also gone up. So our premium penetration in Europe and the U.S. has increased year over year. So, again, that's a strong consumer sign. But, again, more fills, more gallons per stop or more liters per stop does equate to less stops. And so, you know, that's also maybe pressured the inside store a little bit, but I don't think it's material. I really think it's that low-end consumer that we're feeling today.
Bonnie Herzog
All right. Thanks for the caller.
Irene
Thanks, Bonnie.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of George Dumais with Scotiabank.
George Dumais
go ahead yeah good morning brian i know it's early days but can you can you give us an update on total energies uh what are some of the learnings in the first months of operation how's the integration going and do we see some upside or perhaps quicker realization on the 170 million synergy euro target yeah thanks we're pumped about it um and we've met great people um you know you always wonder what's the culture going to be like and you know
Brian
How will this work with new countries? But I think we've got a team that's just happy to be a part of a family that's focused on their business. We've done a couple pilots. We'll call them technical pilots, but including the brand. We've got Circle K fully branded at two sites, but we've got more sites where we're testing coffee, we're testing beverages, we're testing some of our food offers, and we're very pleased with the early results. Like most acquisitions, it's a thousand different things, a thousand different opportunities. We've got them documented. We've got action plans, prioritizing the big ones. And I'd signal today that, you know, the synergy target that we've got out there, you know, we think we can front load the majority of that into, you know, the two to three year period versus the five. So again, very pleased with the start and just thrilled to have the talent that we've found there over the last 90 days. Thanks.
Philippe
Maybe to complement, you know, Brian, on the total energy and on the synergies, and to add on the confidence that we have on the synergy completion, we see, yeah, great potential on the COG side. So leveraging, you know, our scale on negotiating with vendors and also on the operating cost side as well. We can confirm that, yeah, we see a lot of potential there. So, yeah, very confident on the synergy side.
Irene
That's nice.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, please limit yourself to one question each. Your next question comes from the line of Martin Landry with Stiefel. Please go ahead.
Martin Landry
Hi, good morning. I would like to dig a little bit more into the U.S. merchandise sales and more on the tobacco category, just to be clear. Is the entire tobacco category down on a year-over-year basis this quarter?
Demand
Yeah, Martin, thanks for the question.
Brian
Yeah, I mean, you know, both Altria and Reynolds via BAT are public companies, so you can see the industry results. You know, minus eight, minus nine I think would be a fair number in terms of units. You know, and it's been triggered, I think, by, you know, some pretty active price increases by key suppliers in the industry, and at the same time, you know, a pressured lower-income consumer. And I think, you know, in some cases, we've hit a tipping point there that's really driven that. And so, as we've invested in that category, you know, we're doing it at a very targeted basis. You know, our performance in recent weeks and months has been significantly better than industry. And this is on combustibles. The poly side is a good story. You know, we continue to see strong conversion and positive unit and sales growth on the new nicotine categories. And so, you know, when we think about whether it's white nicotine or vape or things like that, they continue to be strong growth. And those are higher margin and higher ring categories for us. And so, you know, that's not all bad that we see, you know, the combustibles growing. because, again, there's a big part of that's converting to other ways, you know, healthier ways to consume nicotine. So, again, we're trying to balance the investment into both sides and our commitments to outperform the industry, our internal commitments to outperform the industry on units and make sure they're providing value to those customers.
Irene
Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Martin.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Anthony Bonadio with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Anthony Bonadio
Yeah, hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking our question. So I just wanted to ask about fuel margins in Europe, given those came off quite a bit sequentially. I know you guys have some upstream commodity exposure, and we've now got TTE layering into that number. But can you just talk a little bit more about what drove that and how we should think about modeling?
Demand
I'd say Europe's been pretty stable.
Brian
When you see volatility, it largely is inventory gains and losses. You know, the street margins that we've experienced in Scandinavia, Ireland, you know, being our largest markets, been pretty consistent. Bio is a component that's different this year. We had a couple of large countries, particularly Sweden, back off of their bio mandates. So, you know, HVO 100, things like that, renewables, And so that's an area that, again, when there's market volatility with our supply capabilities, we tend to benefit more than most in those periods. And so that's been a factor in Europe, the HVO being a smaller part of the business. But again, I'd say most of the volatility you see would be just the fact that we hold more inventory. We own our own terminals and supply chains and you know, I think every country we have. So that's what you're seeing there. You know, the competitor dynamics have been very consistent.
Demand
All right. Thank you, guys.
Operator
The next question comes from the line of Luke Hannon with Canaccord. Please go ahead.
Luke Hannon
Thanks. Good morning. Brian, you touched on in your prepared remarks that you witnessed some softness in the alcohol category as well. I'm just curious, is that related to category-specific dynamics, or is that stemming from the weakness in the overall consumer?
Brian
It's the latter, Luke. Again, you can look at AB or Constellation's results. We see continued strength in Mexican imports, things like that, but there's certainly a trade-down happening in that lower income consumer base and probably some value seeking. We see in our own business, private label continues to grow at double digit rates. So those things are signals that there's trip consolidation happening. You're seeing, I think Walmart benefits from some of the large take home categories in that space. Our focus is on continue to provide the right level of value, but then also Our industry is just unparalleled in its ability to deliver assortment to our consumers. That's really our focus. We've just got to continue to act more local and make sure that we've got what the customers need there in that category.
Irene
Got it. Thank you.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of John Royale with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
John Royale
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. So I have a follow-up on Europe. Can you talk about how fuel demand has compared in the Benelux and Germany regions that you just picked up from Total relative to the legacy Europe and other region where you've had some, I think, declining same-store gallons for, I think, seven quarters? Is the dynamic similar in these new regions in Europe, or should we expect any mixed impacts kind of one way or the other?
Demand
Yeah, it's a good question.
Brian
I would say that, you know, I think about these countries being very similar to our Scandinavian-Ireland business. You know, we've got Eastern Europe, you know, from the Baltics, Poland, you know, just more stable, you know, EV penetration is negligible. You know, we're starting to see EV penetration in certainly Scandinavia, which is not new. And then also, you know, you think about Germany or Belgium, they're on a Not the same curve, but they're on an EV curve as well. So I think our expectation between fleet efficiency and EV is that the curves in those new countries will be very similar to what we see in our Western European countries. So to that end, we're focused on making sure that we're rolling out chargers with the best possible experiences to those customers and winning share. We're very pleased with our e-business in Scandinavia and look forward to rolling out you know, similar offers and loyalty programs to our new countries.
Irene
Thank you.
Operator
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad. Next question comes from the line of Greg Badishakaneen with Wolf Research. Please go ahead.
Greg Badishakaneen
Hi, this is Scott Stringer from Wolf Research on for Greg. I was wondering if you could provide any commentary on how you expect fuel gallons to trend through the remainder of the year, just given the weakness in the consumer here.
Brian
I think near term, you know, we would expect what you see now to continue. You know, diesel demand continues to be weak. And to me, that's a leading indicator of some softness in sectors of the economy. As I said earlier, I think when we think about cycling this, you know, late Q1, early Q2, we would cycle some of this weakness and expect to get back to a more normal trend. But again, in near term, I think the trends you're seeing are consistent. But again, we're pleased with our fuel volume performance in both Europe and in North America compared to our public competitors compared to what we're seeing out of government data. So we continue to take share and we'll continue to focus on doing that over, ratably over a long period of time.
Greg Badishakaneen
Great. I'll leave it at that for now. Thanks.
Irene
All right. Thanks, Scott. At this time, there are no further questions.
Operator
I'll now turn the call back over to Mathieu Brunet for closing remarks.
Mathieu Brunet
Thank you, Brian, and thank you, Felipe. That covers all the questions for today's call. Thank you all for joining us. We wish you a great day and look forward to discussing our fourth quarter results in June.
Irene
Thank you.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect. That brings me to the end of today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now hang up.
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