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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. Today, 7-Eleven serves more than a million cups of coffee every day and maintains a focus on value, with some beverages costing less than $2 for 7Rewards loyalty members.
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).
