LAVAL, Canada—Alimentation Couche-Tard is expanding on its pledge to sell cage-free eggs in its corporate stores by 2025 by including its international franchised Circle K stores in the effort. International franchisees operate more than 2,000 of Couche-Tard’s 14,300 stores.

In 2019, Couche-Tard announced its plan to offer only cage-free eggs at its corporate stores by 2025, which represent more than two-thirds of its global network.

For Circle K franchisees outside of Canada and the United States to commit to the company’s corporate goal to sell cage-free whole eggs, they needed access to reputable and sustainable suppliers, which until recently has been challenging in some regions, according to Couche-Tard. To overcome these obstacles, Couche-Tard is working with Lever Foundation, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to helping companies attain a more humane, safe and sustainable supply chain, with a focus on cage-free eggs.

“Nowhere does our value of Doing the Right Thing come to life more than on our sustainability journey. We are constantly looking at ways we can do more and do better for our people, our customers, our planet and our prosperity,” said Helena Winberg, director of global sustainability for Couche-Tard. “We are proud to engage our global franchise community on our commitment to selling cage-free eggs in our stores and grateful for the support of Lever Foundation in our efforts."

"We congratulate Alimentation Couche-Tard and Circle K for expanding their cage-free egg commitment to include all franchisees and licenses across their two dozen global markets, which will ensure the best quality for customers while also improving the welfare of egg-laying hens," said Kirsty Tuxford, corporate engagement manager at Lever Foundation. "We encourage more convenience store chains and food companies generally to follow Alimentation Couche-Tard's great example on this key sustainability issue.”

In 2018, Rutter’s made the switch to cage-free eggs for all foodservice offerings in all stores. At the time, Rutter’s was the largest U.S. convenience retailer to publicly announce a change to cage-free eggs.

Restaurant Business International, which is the parent company of Burger King, Tim Hortons and Popeyes, recently announced that 92% of its global markets will use only cage-free eggs by 2025. By 2030, all markets will be using only cage-free eggs.