Parkland credits retail growth to salty snacks, candy, packaged beverages

Dive Brief:

As Parkland Corporation continues to pursue its growth strategy in food and convenience, its retail segment grew 53% year over year, president and CEO Robert Espey said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call Friday.
The company’s retail revenue growth was boosted by salty snacks, which were up 14%, as well as candy and packaged beverages, which were each up 12%, CFO Marcel Teunissen said during the call.
Espey also noted that Parkland’s 26 active electric vehicle charging stations are seeing strong utilization, though the program is still in its early days.

Dive Insight:

Parkland was one of the many c-store retailers testing the waters of EV charging last year, with plans for 50 locations in multiple parts of Canada to start with. As retailers continue to worry about the profitability of EV charging installations, the company is closely watching these pilot runs.

“We are seeing our investment thesis prove out in terms of people spending longer at site, spending more time in the stores,” Espey said during the earnings call. “Our utilization currently is tracking about [as] planned. We're early days in — I think we're about 10 weeks into this.”

He said the company would release more information about the sites once it had a larger data set.

Parkland’s loyalty program also gave the company a boost last quarter, with JOURNIE members outspending non-members by about 60% on gas and 20% on in-store purchases,Teunissen said.

The company also announced that it would no longer be building a standalone renewable diesel complex at its Burnaby Refinery. Espey said the reasons for the decision included “rising project costs, a lack of market certainty around emerging fuels, and the U.S. inflation Reduction Act.”

Calgary, Alberta-based Parkland delivers fuel to 4,000 retail and commercial locations across the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. In the U.S., it also operates 212 convenience stores under a number of brands, including On the Run and Hart’s. With approximately 650 locations in total, Parkland is “well on our way to our target of 1,000 stores,” Espey said during the call.