Market News

Van Houtte Expands into Mac\'s Chain

Van Houtte Inc. is moving to grab a bigger chunk of the North American convenience-store market. Most notably, the gourmet coffee company has inked a deal to install self-service bars in 500 Mac\'s stores in Ontario. Mac\'s stores are part of the Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. giant convenience store chain. The Van Houtte coffee will be Mac\'s private-label brand. The Montreal-based company, which gets about 65% of its revenue from serving the office coffee market, has also signed an agreement with U.S oil giant Chevron Corp. for a pilot program to test run its coffee-service kiosks at 45 Chevron stores in the Seattle area. Van Houtte already has a deal for self-service coffee bars in 115 Chevron Canada gas station stores in B.C, under its brand name. Van Houtte president and CEO Jean-Yves Monette called the expansion potential to North America\'s 130,000 convenience stores "phenomenal." Source: Canadian Grocer E-Newsletter. Sept. 23, 2005.