Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.

Good morning, my name is Joëlle and I will be your conference operator today. Bonjour, je m'appelle Joëlle et je serai votre opératrice pour la conférence aujourd'hui. I will now introduce Mr. Mathieu Brunet, Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasury of Alimentation-Cochetard. Je vais maintenant passer la parole à Monsieur Mathieu Brunet, Vice-Président, Relations Investisseurs et Trésorerie pour Alimentation-Cochetard.

Bonjour. J'aimerais d'abord vous souhaiter la bienvenue à la téléconférence qui porte sur la diffusion des résultats financiers du deuxième trimestre de l'exercice 2026 d'alimentation couchetaure. Toutes les lignes seront placées en mode discrétion afin d'éviter tout bruit inutile. À la suite de la présentation, nous répondrons aux questions des analystes. Nous souhaitons vous rappeler que cette webdiffusion sera disponible sur notre site Internet pour une période de 90 jours. De plus, prenez note que certains des sujets discutés au cours de cette webdiffusion pourraient consister en des déclarations prospectives qui sont fournies Good morning. I would like to welcome everyone to this web conference presenting Alimentation Courses d'Or's financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026. All lines will be kept on mute to prevent any background noise. After the presentation, we will answer questions from analysts 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. Alex Miller, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Felipe de Silva, Chief Financial Officer. Alex, you may begin your conference.

Thank you, Matthew, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for being with us today. Before we dive into the results, I'd like to flag something for your calendars. On February 11, 2026, we'll host a business strategy update where we'll walk you through the next phase of our growth journey and our vision for the future of convenience and mobility. We'll share a clear and thoughtful view of where we're headed and what it means for our customers, our network, and the opportunities ahead. You'll receive a formal save the date and additional details in early December. Today's focus is very much on the solid progress we've made this quarter. It's been a little over a year since I stepped into the CEO role, and I'm genuinely proud of the way the business is performing and of the relentless focus our team is putting on winning the customer. Since the start of the fiscal year and for the second consecutive quarter, we've delivered positive same-store sales in every geography, along with steady, reliable performance in fuel. In an environment that remains challenging for many of our customers, they continue to respond to the value and convenience we're working hard to deliver, both inside our stores and on our forecourts. Our customer-focused initiatives are gaining traction, and we're seeing clear proof of that in this quarter's results, which are outperforming the industry. As we strengthen our value proposition and continue enhancing the customer experience across our network, we're also expanding our reach through disciplined organic growth. Together, these efforts are creating meaningful opportunities to welcome new customers and deepen the relationship with those we already serve. We are well on our way to reaching our goal of 500 new stores in five years, with 29 new stores open since May, and we are on track for more than 100 new locations in North America this fiscal year, with many offering high-speed diesel to serve our B2B customers, and we continue to seize opportunities in rural communities, along with our traditional metro area sites. As of today, we have another 73 stores currently under construction, And our real estate team has 1,000 sites in the pipeline for potential future development. In Europe, our rebranding of Total Energy's retail assets is progressing across our four new business units, with the Circle K brand and programs now at 80 sites as of the first half of the year. And half of those sites feature the Circle K car wash offer. Our rebrand of the EV offer in mid-Europe is now complete. In my recent visits to these stores, I've been very pleased to see our team members energized, embracing our programs, executing them with excellence, and engaging with our customers who are responding enthusiastically. Along with our efforts to grow and optimize our network, we are also investing in capabilities to support our stores through best-in-class inventory management solutions and supply chain optimization, which Felipe will address later. This past week in Otsego, Minnesota, we cut the ribbon on the first of three new distribution centers in the U.S. that will open in the third quarter. These three facilities will support approximately 1,600 stores across 14 states. With these openings, combined with our existing facilities in Texas, Arizona, and Quebec, approximately 3,200 stores across North America will be supported by self-distribution. It is an important milestone in our efforts to strengthen and better align our North American supply chain, enhancing speed, accuracy, and product availability while enabling the broadening of product assortment. Now let's turn to our convenience business. As I mentioned earlier, we're continuing positive trends in same-store sales across our geographies for the second straight quarter, with the U.S. up 1.2%, Canada up 5.4%, and Europe and other regions up 0.5 percent, U.S. revenues increased on solid performance in food, packaged beverage, and other nicotine products. Canada's growth benefited primarily from alcohol and food. Food also contributed to the positive sales results in Europe and other regions segment. Given the challenging consumer environment, these results are especially meaningful, and we're seeing clear gains in customer traffic and share. which speaks to the strength of our offering and the compelling value and ease of our experience. We believe the disciplined focus on the customer is helping us distance ourselves from broader industry trends and continue delivering quality, sustainable growth. Looking at our food category, as consumers look for ways to stretch their dollars, our meal deals are meeting their needs with the choices and options they want at an attractive price point. Meal deals are winning with customers thanks to effective communication across our in-store and digital platforms, along with a focus on simplicity and execution. Food penetration continues to rise, and the strong adoption of meal deals across markets further highlights the increasing contribution of food to our overall growth trajectory. In North America, same-store food growth had its best performance in well over a year. fueled by disciplined execution and the ongoing strength of our meal deals platform. This quarter, we sold over 10 million bundles, up from 8.6 million in Q1, averaging over 850,000 bundles per week. I'm even more excited to share that at the very start of Q3, we surpassed the 1 million meal deals mark sold per week in North America. This milestone underscores the growing relevance of our food offering and the value we are bringing to our customers, and we're just getting started. In the months ahead, we'll continue expanding the meal deals platform, introducing greater variety and innovation, strengthening vendor partnerships, and offering customers unmatched optionality. We are also seeing meaningful customer excitement and incremental sales growth from our exclusive partnership with Guy Fieri, which we announced in September. The Flavortown-inspired menu rollout across the Northern Tier business unit is contributing to an increase in overall hot food weekly units alongside meaningful margin dollar contribution. We are encouraged by the customer response to this differentiated offer as we prepare for a broader North American expansion. In addition, our SKU reduction initiative launched in FY25 continues to drive margin improvement in our U.S. business units. enabling us to focus on execution excellence and maintain reliable in-stock performance while also reducing spoilage. In Europe, food continues to be a bright spot. Driven by increased in sales per store, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, and the Baltics were key markets with substantial growth in hot dogs, burgers, sandwiches, and bakery items. Building on our success in North America, we accelerated the European rollout of meal deals last quarter with three well-defined offers at tiered price points to capture a broader range of customer occasions, from smaller impulse buys to full meal solutions. The early results are promising. Turning to our efforts to own thirst, U.S. packaged beverage category delivered solid performance, with basket size and pricing offsetting category-wide declines in trip frequency. Energy drinks continue to lead the category, with same-store sales growth in the mid-teens, supported by ongoing innovation, meal deal inclusion, and exclusive vendor partnerships that are driving consumer engagement. Dispensed beverages are also seeing strong growth in the cold and frozen segments, lifted by our loyalty pricing strategies. Meanwhile, we're launching new programs to drive excitement into the hot dispensed category. Earlier this month in the U.S., we kicked off our win-free coffee for a year sweepstakes in partnership with International Delight Creamers, inviting customers to enter for a chance to win one of 14 prizes. We are also piloting an aggressive inner circle price on hot coffee to complement our highly popular any size pull or pop offer for loyalty members. In adult beverages, we continue to see healthy beer and wine growth in Canada. While we expect growth trends in this category to normalize, These results more than offset the declines in nicotine in Canada, resulting from the illicit tobacco trade and government restrictions on pouches in the convenience channel. In the U.S., our performance in nicotine is strong with mid-single-digit same-store sales growth. We've outpaced the convenience channel in cigarette sales and trips, driven by market-centric pricing and affordability across premium and discount segments. Our September ZIN promotion sparked double-digit unit growth for ZIN as we distributed close to 8 million free cans. Not only did this offer increased total nicotine trips year over year and versus the pre-promotion period, but it also boosted the overall modern oral segment and sustained increased nicotine trips post-promotion. These results highlight our successful vendor collaboration and customer engagement. as well as our ability to deliver value and maintain momentum in a complex regulatory landscape. In Europe, amidst a challenging regulatory and market environment, our nicotine business continues to outperform the broader market with other tobacco products driving year-over-year category growth while we still see some volume gains versus last year from the supermarket bans on tobacco in the Netherlands and Belgium. Looking at our loyalty programs, With our launch of InnerCircle in Texas in September, we added more than 1 million new customers in InnerCircle, surpassing 12.5 million members across the U.S. as of the end of the second quarter. With the completion of our rollout in the West Coast Business Unit earlier this month, InnerCircle is now available at more than 5,000 sites across the U.S., and we expect enrollments to continue to accelerate in the coming months. As we bring InnerCircle to new customers across the U.S., Our retention rates are sustained and healthy. More than 85% of members are active in Fuel. 65% are active inside the store. We are leveraging some of our recent investments in our customer data platform and personalization capabilities to help drive repeat visits from Inner Circle members. And we are seeing existing members visit more frequently. Elsewhere in Europe, we've taken a major step forward with the rollout of our enhanced extra loyalty program. a unified visit-based model that rewards customers for every interaction. Whether they fuel, charge, shop, or wash their cars, the new platform delivers a more seamless, personalized experience that strengthens engagement and customer loyalty across our network. Following a successful pilot in Sweden, we have now completed the expansion to Poland and the Baltics this quarter with other markets to follow. Turning to our fuel business, Same-store road transportation fuel volumes were down 0.6% in the U.S. and 1.8% in Europe, but up 1.1% in Canada. Despite these declines, overall volumes remain healthy and are outperforming industry peers, and margins are holding steady compared to previous quarters. We remain focused on unlocking additional value from our fuel supply chain across our global operations. with our supply, trading, and logistics teams working to expand lower-cost supply options and execute programs that deliver meaningful value to our customers, such as our seasonal Fuel Day events. Our October Fuel Day in Canada drove traffic and excitement to more than 1,100 sites across the country with savings of 10 cents per liter. In the US, we have tied recent Fuel Day events to Inner Circle, not only providing great savings for our customers, but also driving sign-ups to the membership program and deepening customer engagement. In B2B, our European business continues to navigate dynamic environment with mixed volume trends. Card volumes came in just below last year's levels, but this was offset by robust margin gains. Non-fuel income continues to be a strategic growth area as steady increases in B2B transit charging volumes help counteract accelerated declines in traditional fuel and bulk fuel volumes remain healthy. While slightly lower this quarter due to price competition among resellers and a volatile biofuels market, they were offset by improved margins. We are seeing sustained growth in mobile payment adoption, up 30% versus last year, with the Baltics leading in customer onboarding and transaction volume. With rollout of new digital platforms and functionalities, such as self-service enrollment and instant virtual card issuance, we are gaining market share and operational savings for our customers. In the U.S., our B2B fuel share continues to grow as we build strong customer relationships, leverage the national scale and reach of our network, and work to provide a reliable, seamless fueling and payment experience for drivers, focusing on direct partnerships, commercial diesel growth, and strategic collaborations that have set us apart we are seeing higher retention and increased usage among fleets of all sizes. We are also increasing inner circle penetration with B2B members as customers enjoy personal rewards for commercial fueling, enabling both acquisition and retention. Shifting over to e-mobility, we are building on our market leadership in Europe, adding more than 230 DC UltraFast Circle K branded charge points and 33 new sites added across our European network during the second quarter. Overall, we now have close to 630 locations with Circle K branded chargers, up nearly 30% versus a year ago. And our fast charging network now consists of just under 3,900 charge points. In addition, we saw nearly 2 million charging transactions on Circle K branded chargers in Europe, an increase of 55% versus same quarter last year. As we expand the network, With an emphasis on Scandinavia, we are also increasing our focus on new markets in our mid-European business, where our sites contributed more than 300,000 charging transactions. With that, I'll now turn the discussion over to Felipe, who will provide further details on our financial performance this quarter.