Total (officially TotalEnergies) has decided to sell its foreign European petrol stations to Canadian group Couche-Tard, seeking to prepare for the extinction of the internal combustion engine.
Three billion
Will petrol stations still be needed if cars no longer need fuel? With the car fleet becoming increasingly electric and the diesel or petrol engine being phased out (almost) everywhere, French oil giant TotalEnergies asked itself that question and found the obvious answer. To get ahead of the decline, Total is selling its European petrol stations (outside France) to Couche-Tard in a deal worth 3.1 billion euros.
The Canadian retail group will fully take over all 1,500 petrol stations in the Netherlands and Germany. Moreover, Couche-Tard will get a majority stake of 60 % in the network of 619 petrol stations in the in Belgium and Luxembourg. According to the agreement, TotalEnergies will continue to operate the petrol stations under its own brand name for at least another five years. On its French home market, the oil producer will keep all service stations itself.
More shop, less refuelling
Petrol shops are of great interest to Couche-Tard: as its name and its night owl logo suggest, the company specialises in convenience stores and restaurants that are also open at night and on Sundays – often already at petrol stations and along major roads. TotalEnergies also sees potential to sell more non-fuel products.
Competitor Q8 previously revealed to RetailDetail that it is aiming to steer away from traditional fuel stations and towards service and retail points along motorways. Especially when motorists have to take some time to recharge their electric car anyway, they can use that time for shopping, to go out to eat or for other services.
Couche-Tard already tried to gain more of a foothold in Europe in 2021, trying to take over French retailer Carrefour. However, the French government stopped that “overseas invader” at the time. Under the name Circle K, the company already operates in 24 markets, while running hundreds of On The Run petrol shops in the United States for ExxonMobile . In Scandinavia, it also took over the petrol stations of Norwegian oil company Statoil.
