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Operator: Good morning. My name is Joelle, and I will be your conference operator today. [Foreign Language] I will now introduce Mr. Mathieu Brunet, Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasury at Alimentation Couche-Tard. [Foreign Language]
Mathieu Brunet: English will follow. [Foreign Language] Good morning. I would like to welcome everyone to this web conference presenting Alimentation Couche-Tard financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027. [Operator Instructions] 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. Filipe Da Silva, Chief Financial Officer. Alex, you may begin your conference.
Alexander Miller: Thank you, Mathieu, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss our first quarter results. We're encouraged by the start to fiscal 2027, and we're seeing evidence that our strategy is resonating with customers and strengthening the business for the long term. Our performance reflects the resilience and diversity of our business, with our markets, capabilities and growth platforms coming together across our unique global footprint to drive the business forward. Over the summer, we activated some of our best promotional campaigns across the network, such as our America 250 campaign and Fuel Day events, delivering compelling value offers for our customers while helping expand our loyalty base for the long term. As I visited stores, I saw firsthand how our teams brought these campaigns to life while remaining focused on being customer ready. This is translating into deeper engagement and continued growth in loyalty, which I'll come back to in just a moment. Before I discuss the quarter, I want to touch on the most significant development of the summer, our recent agreement to acquire a controlling stake in the Zabka Group. Zabka is one of Europe's most dynamic convenience retailers with significant scale in Central and Eastern Europe, best-in-class capabilities in food and digital and a talented entrepreneurial team we deeply admire. This acquisition accelerates our Core + More strategy, expands our global footprint and adds complementary strengths in food, private brands, supply chain capabilities, digital engagement, loyalty and personalization, while supporting our organic growth ambitions. We look forward to welcoming the Zabka team into the Couche-Tard family as we work toward closing, which we expect to be completed by the end of this calendar year. With that in mind, let's dive into our results. I'll start with convenience before walking through the quarter using the same lens that guides our Core + More strategy. Merchandise same-store sales increased 1.6% across the network, led by 1.7% growth in the United States, marking our fifth consecutive quarter of positive same-store sales growth. What we are seeing today is a consumer who is increasingly intentional about where they spend, and we are leveraging our strengths to adapt to those changes in behavior. Consistent with broader industry trends, elevated living costs and fuel prices continue to weigh on discretionary spending in certain markets. However, when the proposition is compelling, customers continue to engage. We see that come through in energy, other nicotine products, food offers and loyalty-driven promotions. That shift in selective spending behavior is also reshaping the category mix. Packaged carbonated soft drinks as well as traditional center store categories such as salty snacks and packaged sweets remain softer than historical levels as consumers become more deliberate in what they put in their baskets. Excluding those categories, underlying merchandising performance would have been around the midpoint of our same-store sales growth algorithm. At the same time, we are seeing growth in areas where we have been investing, including functional, protein-rich and better-for-you categories. Our teams are actively reallocating space, refining assortments and tailoring promotions to ensure we are meeting customers where demand is moving. As Filipe will discuss, we are also being purposeful on pricing decisions in categories facing volume pressure, balancing profitability with customer relevance and long-term loyalty. More importantly, traffic improved as the quarter progressed, reinforcing our view that customers will engage and spend when the proposition is right. In Canada, same-store sales were stable as continued strength in thirst, helped offset regulatory pressure in nicotine. While the quarter finished flat overall, sales trends improved materially over the course of the quarter and turned positive in the final period. In Europe and other regions, same-store sales increased 1.2%. Despite softer trends in Asia, Europe delivered growth across key geographies and categories, particularly beverages and next-generation nicotine products. Turning to our core categories and starting with fuel, we saw mixed volume trends across our regions. Same-store fuel volumes were down 1.6% in the United States and 4.3% in Europe. Canada extended its positive trend to 8 consecutive quarters of growth with volumes up 1.1% in the quarter. Importantly, every business unit across North America posted positive forecourt traffic during the quarter. Although customers purchased fewer gallons on average, they continue to choose our network, reinforcing the relevance of our value proposition and customer offer as our fuel business continued to generate attractive gross profit. Despite softer demand, our U.S. same-store volumes outperformed most peers and our fuel margins remained well ahead of our competitive set. Market volatility and favorable supply conditions certainly contributed during the quarter. But these results are also a reflection of the fuel platform we've built over many years across sourcing, supply, pricing and network management. That platform helped us gain sequential market share in the U.S. and deliver fuel profitability across the network. Beyond retail fuel, B2B continued to build momentum. Mobile payment adoption in Europe increased roughly 40% year-over-year, while our Circle K Pro card drove another quarter of growth with fleet operators in North America contributing to a 20% increase in B2B volumes. Together, these initiatives are extending the reach of our fuel platform and creating additional avenues for growth. Turning to Thirst, one of our most impactful traffic drivers and a category where we continue to gain share across the network. Energy was once again the standout, delivering double-digit growth in the U.S. and roughly 70% of the category's gains. Protein beverages and enhanced hydration also grew meaningfully, reflecting rising consumer demand for functional and wellness-oriented products. Carbonated soft drinks were pressured in part by changes to SNAP eligibility in certain markets. We continue to respond by focusing on value, leveraging our loyalty platform and driving engagement across adjacent beverage, food and convenience categories, where we're seeing stronger customer demand. In Canada, energy delivered high single-digit growth with similar performance across energy and functional beverages in Europe, highlighting the attractiveness of the category and the relevance of our customer offer. Turning to nicotine. In the U.S., other nicotine products delivered one of their best quarters in recent years, posting double-digit same-store sales growth led by pouches, significantly outpacing the broader market. In cigarettes, same-store sales increased for a third consecutive quarter. While growth moderated from the strong performance we saw in Q4, we still outperformed industry volume trends by roughly 400 basis points, reflecting the effectiveness of our pricing, promotional and loyalty strategies. In Canada, the category remained broadly consistent with recent quarters. The illicit market and evolving regulatory environment continued to pressure legal volumes, which were partly offset by disciplined pricing and a targeted customer offer. In Europe, results benefited from growing adoption of next-generation nicotine products alongside a stable cigarette business. Pouches remained a key contributor to growth with several markets, particularly across our legacy European network delivering solid high single-digit same-store sales growth. Our assortment, digital capabilities and engagement with age-verified customers position us well as the category continues to evolve. Now let me turn to the More part of our strategy, where food remains our single biggest growth opportunity. If you look at our latest annual report published earlier this summer, you'll see the progress we're making reflected in our mix with food now representing 13.2% of merchandise sales. In North America, value continues to anchor the food story through our meal deals. We sold nearly 14 million meal deal bundles during the quarter, up nearly 20% from last year, demonstrating the continued appeal of a compelling value proposition. We are also working closely with our vendor partners to keep the offer fresh and give customers new reasons to engage. A recent example is the U.S. -- in the U.S. is our Flamin' Hot Boneless Wings launch, our first hot food collaboration with PepsiCo and Frito-Lay. Following a successful rollout across our fresh food network, the product is now selling more than 40,000 units per week and helping drive larger food baskets. More broadly, we're seeing customers increasingly trade up into higher-value prepared food offerings with hot food mix increasing since launch, demonstrating our ability to pair everyday value with attractive premium offerings. We're also finding opportunities to further optimize our core assortment using data and consumer insights to refine menus at both the national and regional level. Beyond the U.S., we're seeing progress across the network. In Canada, food sales and unit growth improved year-over-year, supported by value-focused offers, stronger food conversion and continued engagement with our meal deal platforms. In Europe, food performance benefited from customers increasingly choosing larger and more satisfying meal options. Growth was led by burgers, while larger formats, including extra large kebabs and double burgers continue to resonate with consumers. Underpinning all of this is execution. We remain focused on improving availability across our hero items, refining our meal deal platforms and simplifying operations to improve sell-through and reduce shrink. Food represents a significant opportunity for us, and we're continuing to build the capabilities needed to capture it. Turning to our network. During the quarter, we added 26 sites across North America and Europe and today have approximately 42 stores under construction. We expect to open more than 100 stores in fiscal 2027 and continue to expand our development pipeline. While permitting and entitlement time lines remain longer in certain markets, we expect to supplement our new build program with a growing pipeline of single-site acquisitions and remain on track toward our long-term target of 750 new stores by 2030. Our new stores continue to meaningfully outperform the broader network with food sales 120% above the network average, while merchandise sales and basket size are 20% higher, demonstrating the strength of our site selection and customer offer. Moving back outside the store, e-mobility remains a good example of how we're building for the future while leveraging the strengths of our existing network. In Europe, our charging network now exceeds 4,900 charge points, up 32% from last year. Customer adoption continues to grow with charging transactions increasing more than 40% and utilization moving higher across the network. Those results reflect the advantages of our model, prime locations, a reliable charging experience and the ability to combine charging with food, beverages and other convenience purchases. As adoption continues to grow, we're well positioned to capture that opportunity. Finally, digital and loyalty continue to be increasingly important drivers of customer engagement across our network and are among the key enablers that power our Core + More strategy. In the U.S., we added more than 1 million Inner Circle members during the quarter, bringing the program to nearly 16 million members. Nearly 1 in 3 transactions now comes from a loyalty member, while traffic attributable to Inner Circle increased 30% versus last year. We recently launched Inner Circle 2.0, enabling members to earn rewards across more of their purchases while unlocking personalized offers and challenges. This month, Inner Circle will be live in all U.S. business units with the expansion of the program into our Northern Tier business unit. In Europe, Extra 2.0 is driving a 13% increase in traffic across our legacy markets. We also recently brought our EV and loyalty experiences into a single app, helping drive a 19% increase in EV traffic among app members and creating a simpler, more connected experience for customers. With that, I'll turn it over to Filipe.
Filipe Da Silva: Thank you, Alex. Good morning, everyone. The first quarter demonstrated the balance we are achieving across the business, delivering adjusted EBITDA growth of 10.5% and adjusted diluted earnings per share growth of 15.4%, while maintaining normalized expense growth well below inflation. At the same time, we continue to invest in customer value and traffic-driving initiatives, advancing our strategic priorities and focusing on delivering sustainable long-term earnings growth. More importantly, these results demonstrate the strength of our diversified operating model. You have heard Alex provide additional color on the quarter and the consumer environment. While pockets of pressure remain across parts of our network, the growth algorithm we outlined at our business strategy update continues to deliver. The combination of our geographic diversification, category mix and multiple earnings levers allows us to continue growing earnings while navigating different market conditions. Canada and Europe once again made meaningful contribution to our performance, reinforcing the benefits of a balanced business that is not dependent on any single geography, category or initiative. Before turning to the quarter, I would also like to briefly acknowledge the announced Zabka transaction. This is a transformational investment for Couche-Tard and an important milestone in our growth journey. I could not be more enthusiastic about what this transaction brings to the organization, from the quality of the business and its capabilities to the opportunities it creates for the years ahead. I will now go over some key figures for the quarter. For more details, please refer to our MD&A available on our website. Net earnings attributable to shareholders stood at $829 million or $0.90 per share on a diluted basis. Adjusted net earnings were approximately $827 million or $0.90 per share on an adjusted diluted basis, representing an increase of 15.4% compared to the corresponding quarter of last year. Now let's review in detail each of our business segments on an FX-adjusted basis. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 increased by approximately $165 million or 10.2% year-over-year, driven by improved road transportation fuel gross margin as well as by the contribution from acquisitions, which amounted to approximately $44 million, partly offset by inflationary pressure on our expenses, including our electronic payment fees from higher fuel retail prices. During the first quarter, merchandise and service revenues increased by approximately $186 million or 4%, primarily attributable to the contribution from acquisitions, which amounted to approximately $112 million and organic growth coming from our store performance. Merchandise and service gross profit increased by approximately $52 million or 3.1%, primarily driven by approximately $38 million from acquisition with additional contribution from organic growth across all regions. In the United States, merchandise margin declined by 50 basis points to 34.1%. This reflected several factors, including a shift in category mix, increased spoilage in certain food categories as well as deliberate pricing discipline designed to support compelling value for our customers. Let me take a moment to expand on merchandise margins. As you heard Alex discuss earlier, consumers continue to be thoughtful about how they spend, and we have been intentional in our pricing decisions to ensure our offer remains competitive, compelling and relevant. While that supported traffic, customer engagement and positive same-store sales growth, it also contributed to some pressure on merchandise margin during the quarter. For example, the continued growth of Inner Circle is also driving greater participation in traffic driving programs such as Polar Pop and meal deals. These initiatives are delivering the intended customer response, including increased visit frequency and deeper engagement across the network. At the same time, some of the categories that have traditionally contributed a disproportionate share of the merchandise gross profit remained softer than historical levels. As consumers place greater emphasis on value, we continue to see spending shift toward promotional and lower ticket purchases with fewer discretionary items making their way into the basket. While these categories represent a relatively modest portion of sales, they tend to carry higher margin profiles and therefore, have a greater impact on overall margin performance. That said, we continue to evaluate performance through the lens of gross profit dollars rather than any single quarter's margin rate. The balance between traffic, sales growth and margin will naturally shift from period to period, but we remain confident in the underlying economics and long-term profitability of the business. We are also beginning to see tangible benefits from our distribution center network with product availability and service level now outperforming our traditional wholesale model. While still early, the sourcing and procurement opportunities we are seeing reinforce our confidence that these capabilities will increasingly contribute to margin expansion over the coming quarters. In Canada, merchandise margin declined by 60 basis points to 33.3%, primarily reflecting category mix, continued competitive intensity in cigarette and shift within beverage categories. While these factors weighed on margin rate during the quarter, they supported volume and customer engagement in some of our most important categories. In Europe and other regions, merchandise margin increased by 70 basis points to 39.6%, benefiting from favorable mix, including a lower relative contribution for cigarettes and continued growth in higher-margin categories and services. Our EV charging business continued to gain momentum in Europe with gross profit increasing by nearly 40% compared with the same period last year. Moving on to the fuel. Road transportation fuel gross margin was $0.5261 per gallon in the United States, CAD 0.1679 per liter in Canada and USD 0.1134 per liter in Europe and other regions. While fuel margins in Europe and other regions were below last year, this largely reflects change in market conditions during the quarter. We continue to view the region as healthy and remain confident in our ability to generate attractive fuel profitability over time. While market conditions remained supportive during the quarter, we believe the consistency of our fuel performance increasingly reflect capabilities that have been built over the last decade. Investment across sourcing, logistics, supply optimization and trading continue to strengthen our ability to perform through different market environments and create value across our network. More broadly, fuel remains a critical component of our growth algorithm. The scale and profitability of our fuel platform support traffic, generate significant gross profit and help fund the investments we are making across food, digital and other long-term growth initiatives. Turning to SG&A. Normalized expenses increased by 2.7% year-over-year, well below the weighted average inflation rate across our network. This result demonstrate an important point. Over the last several quarters, we have been making thoughtful investments across supply chain, technology and store operations while preserving the financial discipline that has always been central to how we operate the business. This quarter is another proof point that we can continue investing in the future while maintaining a lean cost structure today. Store labor hours per location declined 1.1% compared with last year, while overtime trends across network -- sorry, while overtime trends across North America continue to improve. This improvement reflects ongoing efforts to better align labor with demand, simplify execution and support productivity at the store level. We're also making good progress with RELEX. Since discussing the successful pilot last quarter, deployment has expanded from approximately 200 stores to more than 1,000 locations across North America. Product availability on RELEX managed item has improved by more than 5%, supported by stronger forecasting, replenishment and space planning. Most U.S. business units are expected to be live during fiscal 2027 with Canada following in fiscal 2028. Over time, we expect these capabilities to improve availability, reduce complexity and spoilage and further enhance productivity across the network. Turning to depreciation. We saw an increase of approximately $21 million or 4% compared with the first quarter of last year. Approximately $60 million of the increase was attributable to acquisition with the balance largely reflecting ongoing investment in our network, equipment replacement and other growth initiatives. Overall, depreciation continues to evolve largely in line with our expectations and consistent with the pace of investment across the business. From a tax perspective, the income tax rate for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 was 23.3% compared with 23.2% for the corresponding quarter of fiscal 2026. As of July 19, 2026, return on equity stood at 19.7%, while return on capital employed was 13.7%. Our balance sheet remains in a strong position. At quarter end, our leverage ratio stood at 1.77x compared with 1.99x at the end of fiscal 2026. We also maintained strong liquidity with approximately $3 billion in cash and an additional $3.5 billion available through our revolving unsecured operating credit facility. During the quarter, we repurchased 0.4 million shares for approximately $26 million and we paid our EUR 750 million denominated senior unsecured notes at maturity. As part of our capital allocation framework, share repurchases are currently on pause, as we prepare for the expected closing of the Zabka transaction. Following the launch of the voluntary tender offer process at the end of August, we continue to make progress towards completing what we believe is a highly complementary and compelling addition to the Couche-Tard family. This will further enhance our leadership position in the convenience market. While the final ownership level will depend on shareholder participation in the offer, we currently expect leverage to move modestly above our stated comfort range of 2 to 2.5x at closing. Even so, we remain confident in the strength of our balance sheet, our cash generation capabilities and our ability to deliver efficiently following completion of the transaction. Turning to the dividend. The Board of Directors declared yesterday a quarterly dividend of CAD 0.215 per share for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 to shareholders on record as of September 11, 2026, and approved its payment effective September 25, 2026. In closing, I'm very pleased with our quarterly performance and we remain committed to executing against the long-term profitable growth algorithm outlined at our business strategy update. While quarterly results will inevitably include some variability, our focus remains on the longer-term trajectory of the business. Across merchandise, fuel, customer engagement and operational efficiency, we continue to see evidence that the investment initiatives underway are moving in the right direction and strengthening the foundation of the business. We are investing in the areas that matter, improving the economics of our networks and expanding the advantages that continue to set us apart. As we look ahead, we feel good about where the business is headed. We look -- we are executing against a clear plan, building on a position of strength and remain confident in our ability to create sustainable long-term value for shareholders. I thank you for your attention, and I will now turn the call back to Alex.
Alexander Miller: Thank you, Filipe. I'll leave you with a few final thoughts. As I step back and look at the quarter, what stands out to me is the progress we're making across the business. We're attracting more customers into our ecosystem, gaining share in key categories and expanding engagement through loyalty. The quarter also highlights the strength of a business that is built on multiple geographies, categories and initiatives rather than any single driver of performance. As Filipe noted, progress in a business like ours is measured over years, not quarters, and the results we discussed today reinforce our conviction in the Core + More strategy and the long-term direction of the business. As we look ahead to the second quarter, it's still early, but we saw trends stabilize as we exited the first quarter and are beginning to see signs of improvement. While there remains some uncertainty in the consumer environment, the data we see today gives us optimism that there is a path towards sequential improvement and performance consistent with our long-term growth algorithm. My thanks once again to our colleagues around the world for everything they do to serve our customers. With that, operator, let's open the line for questions.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Irene Nattel with RBC Capital Markets.
Irene Nattel: I'd like to start the call just talking a little more color, please, around the U.S. same-store sales number, which came in just shy of your target. But more specifically, some of the categories that you described as being weak. I'm wondering how much of that is structural as consumer consumption changes spend? How much just may be transitory? And how we should think about the reacceleration of that same-store sales number as we move through the year?
Alexander Miller: Thanks for the question, Irene. I think as you look at the quarter, right, we continue to see the items we've referenced as core and where we see strength, you continue to see real strength, right? We're delivering in nicotine. You look at cigarettes, right, we were up -- I want to say 3.6% in Q4. We were up 1.8% in this quarter. So still very solid growth, but a fallback versus where we were in Q4. We obviously grew other nicotine by even a greater number and continue to capture material share in that growing instance where our gross profit now is very similar in the U.S. from other nicotine to cigarettes, and it's actually higher, it's pretty significantly higher in Europe than cigarettes are. Energy drinks continue to perform. Like you heard in our commentary, right, we saw some real challenge in carbonated soft drinks that impacted our packaged beverage. I think with that said, energy drinks is now twice the size of CSD, where we're growing significantly. And we're also seeing changes, really strong sales in hydration, functional beverages, protein beverages, and we are actively allocating more assortment to those areas. As you look at the center store, specifically confectionery, salty snacks, some of those categories that are long traditional categories in the C-store space, they have been under challenge for some time. I certainly think GLP-1 drugs are having an impact on those categories. And we did see -- they were softer in this quarter than they were the previous quarter. Is that transitory or not? Candidly, Irene, I don't know. What I do know is we are changing assortment, and we are putting in more protein, more functional bars and things in these categories, chips in these categories. You see the vendors actively reallocating space. So we remain optimistic as we make changes to our assortment that these continue -- can continue to be strong categories for us.
Operator: Your next question comes from Corey Tarlowe with Jefferies.
Corey Tarlowe: Alex, I wanted to ask about the test with the Flamin' Hot chicken partnership with Pepsi and how that, a, has informed your ability to move into different categories beyond what the business currently exists in? And then b, as you think about what this might portend for the future, how this could unlock further scale for your food platform as we look forward?
Alexander Miller: Yes. I think we have great relationships with our big CPG partners, first of all, and Pepsi and Frito-Lay are one of those partners. We have great relationships with multiple other of our big CPG partners. And we continue to innovate and work with them and bring new products to market. And with our relationships and our scale, we're often able to do that with exclusive launches and bring unique products to market. As I think about the Flamin' Hot launch, what gives us encouragement as we think about our food, we think about -- you hear us talk to compelling value in our meal deals, and you clearly see those resonating with consumers as we grow those platforms. What also is finding midpoint price and more premium priced items to bring into our mix that can help with margins and deliver additional sales growth beyond just the compelling value offers that I believe we've shown we have real capability in. Flamin' Hot Wings, the LTOs that we've launched with Guy Fieri and what we have in line to do that, I think we see a path to hit at these different levels of food and contribute to our goal to grow 3 to 4x food versus our core C-store. We grew food 5.2% in the U.S. We grew hot foods over 11% in the U.S. We grew food in Canada 4.3%. We grew food in Europe 3.6%. So we are growing food across the network. And we believe things like Flamin' Hot Wings and specifically having very targeted at value, midpoint and premium will accelerate our growth to our goal of 3 to 4x growth that we've shared with you that is our ultimate target.
Operator: Your next question comes from Martin Landry with Stifel.
Martin Landry: I would like to go back to the U.S. consumer. Your merchandise same-store sales were growing below your growth algorithm and combined with the margin erosion this quarter versus last quarter, your growth was above your growth algorithm with a margin expansion. So can you discuss a little bit the health of the U.S. consumer? In Q4, you had mentioned consumer resilience. And today, I think you're pointing to a more discerning consumer spending. So have you seen a change in consumer behavior in the U.S. in Q1 versus Q4? I'd like to hear a little bit more details on that.
Alexander Miller: Yes. I think the notion of inflation, it's been here with us for a while, the notion of the K-shaped economy or the stress on the lower income consumers, that's been a conversation for really multiple years now. I think when you stand back, the consumer and many of the metrics, they've proven to be highly resilient, right? And that gives us optimism. They are outspending. They are just being more targeted, more direct, I think, more thoughtful in their choices. And we need to play into that, and we are playing into that. You hear retailers -- I think a lot of retailers have kind of signaled, hey, they're seeing some softness. But that's not the first time we've heard that, and that will never be a reason or an excuse inside of Couche-Tard. We are taking share. We need to take more share. That is about the assortment and having the things that they really want, and that is increasingly leveraging our digital platforms to communicate with them and provide them personalized offers that resonate with them and drive them to our stores more often and to purchase more when they're on our stores. We are having success in doing that. We continue to advance those programs, advance our capabilities around personalization, add age-restricted members to our platforms. And we believe we can continue to win and take share inside of the environment that we're operating in and ultimately deliver on our growth. 15% EPS growth and 10% EBITDA growth, that's solid, right? That's solid. And yes, we slightly missed on our 2% to 3% same-store, but we believe we can deliver in this environment against our growth algorithm, and I believe we're showing that we can.
Operator: Your next question comes from Chris Li with Desjardins.
Christopher Li: I just have a very quick clarification and then a quick follow-up. First, Alex, I want just to confirm, did you say that Q2 to date U.S. merchandise same-store sales is trending roughly the same as Q1, about 1.7%, but you do see maybe a path for sequential improvement, while maybe it's still a little bit early.
Alexander Miller: Yes. I think our sales thus far in the quarter are very similar to what we just announced for Q1. I think we have seen some acceleration in the past couple of weeks that gives us some optimism. Our fuel volume numbers are pretty similar to what we delivered in Q1. Our U.S. CPG up to this point is high 40s. Our cost in P4 are absolutely under control, and we delivered nice margin capture in P4. So yes, to answer your question that similar, but feel pretty good about our performance up to this stage of the quarter and have some optimism in the last couple of weeks of data that we've seen.
Filipe Da Silva: And just a bit on [indiscernible]. I think it's very important to go a bit beyond the quarter-over-quarter vision. And we believe that customers are looking for value. We have been talking about that now since a few quarters. We are seeing a very strong response there. We see -- when we look at loyalty, all the investment that we are doing there, we see the traffic going up, average visit is going up with the loyalty. So it's resonating it gives us all the food things initiatives that Alex has just mentioned earlier in the call, it's just showing us that we are on the right path. We are there for the customers on the long run. There is no doubt that this growth algorithm that we have provided to you during the business update, we'll get there. We just need to continue to do what we do, and we are convinced that we are on the right path and the customer is responding well. So yes, a lot of confidence around that.
Christopher Li: Perfect. And then just maybe a quick follow-up. Just on the fuel margins. As you know, the U.S. administration has been in talks with the refiners to try to lower gas prices. I know it's still very early, and there aren't a lot of details. But just curious to know how you think this might potentially impact your business and fuel margins, if any, at all?
Alexander Miller: We really separate, right? We have our supply chain. And our supply chain goal is to bring product to supply our stores ratably constantly and to do it at the lowest possible cost of goods. We then compete every minute of every day on the street with our competitive set, and we remain in position and competitively priced always. That is our motto. The rest of it rolls around us. I think we have said to you multiple times that in periods of volatility, they ultimately are good for us. And the platform we have built enables us to capture additional value. I think you see that in Q4. You see that in Q1 here. The environment remains volatile out there, and we continue to utilize our platform to capture value and deliver underlying COGS that is advantaged against our competitive set.
Operator: Your next question comes from Vishal Shreedhar with National Bank.
Vishal Shreedhar: At Investor Day, supply chain was indicated to be an enabler for your strategy. And I know you had some DCs that have opened, and you talked to that a little bit. I was just hoping you can update us on where you are on your DCs and how many of the planned 1,600 stores have been onboarded? And when should we expect those benefits to become visible in merchandise same-store sales growth and gross margin and expenses?
Filipe Da Silva: Thank you, Vishal. Yes, you're right. The supply chain -- the merchant supply chain is one of the key initiatives that we have for -- within the Core + More. And I think you should see that initiative as a multiyear journey. To build this supply chain, I will make a parallel on the fuel side. It takes years, okay? So here, we are very pleased actually by the 3 DCs that we have put in operation during Q4 of last year. And as I mentioned earlier in the call, it's already delivering tangible results. Availability, service level are already above the model that we have and the wholesale model that we have in other stores, over part of the network in U.S. So it's already delivering there. On the sourcing and the procurement, we are just starting. I think here, it will take some time. As I mentioned in the previous call, I think we will start to see some margin benefits at the end of this fiscal year and definitely continue to accelerate over the next coming years. But feeling good about where we are. The team are full speed on that. Again, it's a new capability for us. But we are definitely confident that we'll be talking about the match supply chain as we are talking about the fuel supply chain today as a very strong differentiator and an enabler to margin expansion over the next coming years, Vishal.
Alexander Miller: Yes. And Vishal, I build on Zabka. One of -- there's many things we find attractive about Zabka, but certainly a primary one is their -- more than a decade of advancement of their own supply chain. So they have 8 warehouses in Poland. They have 2 more under construction as we speak. They supply 99.8% of the goods to their nearly 13,000 sites in Poland. And we have 400 stores in Poland. We have 60% SKU overlap and their cost of goods to deliver to their stores versus our cost of goods is more than 20% less. Acquiring Zabka, we will be able to service some of our European network with their existing footprint, and we believe that will advance our capabilities and our speed in Europe on this journey and also the knowledge to our 6 warehouses and DCs here in North America.
Operator: Your next question comes from John Zamparo with Scotiabank.
John Zamparo: The question is about your vendor partnerships, in particular, on other nicotine and energy. And I wonder if you can talk about the state of vendor support you're receiving to spur traffic and sales in those categories. In the past, you've spoken positively about this contributing to sales growth and also margin expansion because these categories carry above the average margins. I wonder how that has fared this quarter? And what do you expect the rest of the year given the current environment among consumers and for consumer spending.
Alexander Miller: Yes. I think energy is just -- it's an incredible story and that -- I mean, energy has been around now for 25 years. It is a massive category today, as we discussed, right? It's twice the size of carbonated soft drinks. Yet it is still growing high single digits kind of industry-wide. And for us, we're outperforming that. And as I said, we've grown more than double digits, more than 10% in the U.S. this quarter. And we're growing in Canada. We're growing in Europe. As far as our vendor partners, right, I think we have great relationships with all those partners, Red Bull, Monster. Certainly, you have Pepsi in there with -- and what you see is the core continuing to do very well and then new products coming. You look at the new products such as Alani and Celsius and you see many more females entering the category and new products. So the run rate for energy, it's been an incredible story. It is not slowing down. And we are well positioned both with our cooler space, the advancement of cold space in our stores around our footprint and our relationship with vendors and being on the cutting edge of getting the new products, bringing in the innovative products and leading with those products. So we feel great about the journey, about our relationships and where we're positioned, and we over-index energy and other nicotine are the 2 big drivers, and we have great relationships in those spaces, and we over-index heavily in those spaces.
Operator: Your next question comes from Derek Lessard with TD Cowen.
Derek Lessard: Another standout quarter in terms of your cost control. Just how should we think about your normalized SG&A growth as you start lapping your strategic investments? And then just maybe a reminder on the timing of that lapping.
Filipe Da Silva: Yes. Thanks for the question. And yes, you're right. The team is doing an amazing job here on the cost discipline. I have to say that, that's something that it's across the operations, U.S., Canada, Europe are delivering a very strong discipline there, which allows us actually to invest because, yes, we know we have been talking about and we continue to talk about all these digital investments, supply chain investment. And it's possible because we are being disciplined and a lot of stuff happening in terms of productivity. So we are seeing labor hours going down in the stores. We are seeing the GNFR procurement and leveraging our scale and getting concrete results and savings there through regional, national or global negotiation there. So feeling very good about where we are. And yes, we are very confident on this part of the financial growth algorithm that we'll be able to deliver the normalized expense below inflation on a sustainable way. Again, here, I want just to be cautious quarter-over-quarter, we may see some variation there, but we'll be there. We'll be delivering on the fiscal year this year. We'll be delivering over the Core + More strategy 4 years plan, and we are very confident and thanks to the job that's being done by the team again there.
Operator: Your next question comes from Bobby Griffin with Raymond James.
Alessandra Jimenez: This is Alessandra Jimenez on for Bobby Griffin. I wanted to follow up on the U.S. pricing investments. Could you provide some more detail on where those investments are concentrated by category, why you chose to make them now? And then what you've seen from competitors in response? And should we think about the pricing investments as a multi-quarter margin headwind?
Alexander Miller: Yes. Thank you for the question. I'm not going to go into detailed category analysis on this call. I think what I would tell you is kind of 2 or 3 things. I think you've seen us grow margin expansion over the past 2 years. We have expanded margins. I view this quarter as somewhat of an anomaly. We knew we had heavy investment going into America 250 into the World Cup. We knew we had heavy investment going into our food platforms and meal deals. And then on top of that, we had some timing impacts around rebates, and placement fees. And so we fundamentally believe that we've shown we can expand margins over the cycle, and we believe we will continue to do that. And again, I think as you heard Filipe say and you heard Filipe say about our cost, it's not always going to be clean quarter-to-quarter. But over the cycle, we fundamentally believe we will continue to expand margins, and we believe we've been showing that over the past couple of years.
Operator: Your next question comes from Tamy Chen with BMO Capital Markets.
Tamy Chen: On the U.S. merchandise same-store sales, as I'm listening to you guys talk about the categories that have continued to grow well versus the categories that have been weak. It sounds like to further accelerate the merchandise comp, like is it largely a shelf allocation hurdle at this point? So just continuing to pivot more of your shelf space to those higher growth areas, the functional beverages and less in the CSD and confectionery, and that's when we'll see that acceleration in the comp.
Alexander Miller: Yes. I think the simple answer is yes. I think you've heard me discussing for multiple quarters, the change in consumer and the pace of that change. And our need to adjust and adjust rapidly. I think the positive thing is the tools we have and the capabilities we have enable that, and we are adjusting, and we need to continue and will continue to do that. And I think we're well positioned to do that. I also think through our digital platforms, we have the reach -- to reach consumers and let them know about these changes and come into our stores and invite them to try these products -- these new products that we're allocating assortment to.
Filipe Da Silva: And maybe an example, as we see this shift in terms of consumption and the consumer, we don't see that actually as a drag in our same-store sales because I will give you an example that we have done in terms of reallocation of space is nicotine. We have done that through the last few quarters and providing more space allocation to modern oral category versus cigarette. And Alex mentioned that several times, we continue to grow in cigarettes. So it's really about being there for the consumer with the right customer value proposition in terms of assortment, in terms of price and sales will continue to come. So...
Operator: Your next question comes from Luke Hannan with Canaccord Genuity.
Luke Hannan: I wanted to dig in a little bit more into the Inner Circle program and specifically, Alex, I think you talked about you're going to be rolling this out across your Northern tier BU or if not in the process already. So can you just frame up for us, I mean, the success of the program thus far once you've rolled it out into the BUs that you had targeted previously as far as the success of converting the folks who are visiting your store more frequently into members based on that, what is your prospects, I guess? Or how are you thinking about the conversion of members across Northern Tier? And then maybe as a follow-up to that as well is you talked about the investments in price. How much of that is going to be showing up within, we'll call it, the everyday assortment versus showing up behind the Inner Circle program or within the Inner Circle program moving forward?
Alexander Miller: Yes. Thanks for -- that was a lot in that question. So I'll start with Northern Tier. Northern Tier is old Holiday, right? So that's our Holiday acquisition that we did 7-some-odd years ago. And Holiday had a pretty advanced loyalty platform. So they had multiple partners, Cub Foods, as an example, in the Greater Twin Cities. So they have multiple partner programs. I think the great thing is the reason we're launching Northern Tier is we now have the capability to plug partners across our entire Inner Circle platform. So I think you'll be hearing more from us over the coming quarters of how we are plugging partners, both nationally and regionally to drive more engagement and more use of our platforms. And so we're excited about that. When you look at Inner Circle, just every quarter, we're reporting to you more members, greater usage, higher baskets and they -- it's every quarter, we are extremely pleased that what we are doing with consumers, it is resonating with them. We all know there's a lot of loyalty programs out there. It has to be relevant. It has to provide value. It has to be personalized. We have the capabilities to do that. So we are just leveraging down on that. And we're excited for our new visit-based program that we just launched. We think that will be a tool to be even more personal and to give offers and benefits for people recognizing how often they're visiting us and them seeing the direct rewards from that.
Operator: Your next question comes from Mark Carden with UBS.
Mark Carden: So I wanted to dig a bit more into the consumers becoming more intentional on where they're spending. It sounds like you're still taking market share. But as you step back and look at the broader channel, are you seeing much in the way of incremental sales dollars shifting to mass in the club channel, just given where fuel prices are at today? And then are you able to quantify how much of a merch comp headwind you saw in the U.S. from SNAP?
Alexander Miller: Yes. I think when you look at the macro data -- macro retail data, you certainly hear and see that there are fewer trips. There are increasing value direction, value perception, value looking for value. So I think, again, if you look at retail data, you continue to see those trends coming through. I think for us, we're actually growing traffic. You heard Filipe say we're growing traffic onto our lots. For the last quarter, we were positive traffic both onto our lots and into our stores. This quarter, we were slightly negative into our stores. But we have more customers coming to visit us inside of the context of fewer trips, more targeted trips for value. I think that really shows well for us, and it's why we think we're continuing to take increasing amounts of market share across our categories. And as you've heard me talk about on this call, we think there's a lot of reasons of why that's happening, but that is compelling value in the spaces that we really can compete and really have strong vendor relationships with. That is our investments into food, and that is certainly our digital platforms and our means to talk to our customers.
Operator: The next question comes from Bonnie Herzog with Goldman Sachs.
Bonnie Herzog: I was hoping you could touch on the durability of your new unit growth over the long term. I know you have a plan to add more than 750 stores by FY '30. So could you just maybe update us on the pace of this growth? And then how we should think about NTIs versus M&A and whether you see higher returns on NTIs or M&A? And with this, I guess I'm curious to hear how M&A multiples have trended recently considering the pressure on smaller operators.
Alexander Miller: Thanks, Bonnie, for the question. Quite a bit there, too. NTIs are great for us. We have -- our real estate group continues to perform very strongly. Our pipeline is large and massive. We continue to funnel that pipeline. And we continue to believe and remain committed that we will deliver our 750 sites that we committed to and 4 plus more by 2030 over the period. NTI economics for us are fantastic. I can tell you, we have pretty disciplined hurdles around return rates. If you look at our NTI program over the last several years, we are in the high teens on average around return on capital in that program. So the returns are strong. Single-site acquisitions, we separate that from M&A, right? When we talk M&A or things like Zabka, those are big, big things. But we believe there's an increasing opportunity to acquire 1 site, single site, 5 sites, 10 sites -- and our real estate teams have organized that way now. So we are much more active on the ground pursuing those opportunities. And we are starting to see more transactions in that space. And I think they have greater confidence we will be able to acquire more assets at attractive valuations, meeting our return threshold in the financial discipline that we've always had. So -- and then I got to talk about Zabka. Zabka's plan for this year is to build 1,300 sites, and they are on track to deliver that. And there is a plan -- their plan is to deliver another 6,000 to 7,000 sites in Poland and another 7,000 to 8,000 sites in Romania over the coming 5 years. They are a tremendous growth platform that we're excited to bring into the family. And that obviously, our goal is to accelerate that growth of that unique platform.
Filipe Da Silva: Yes. And just, Bonnie, on the M&A activity, we still see a good pipeline there. As mentioned by Alex, we have now a team looking at the single store acquisition, the small target as well. And there is a pipeline there. We will be active on that. We have the balance sheet for that as well. So independently of Zabka, definitely, we continue to look at. And at M&A and, of course, U.S. is one of the priorities to continue to grow the network.
Operator: I will now turn the call over to Mr. Brunet for closing remarks.
Mathieu Brunet: Thank you, Alex and Filipe. That covers all of the questions for today's call. Thank you all for joining us, and we wish you a great day and look forward to discussing our second quarter results in November. [Foreign Language]
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.