(Laval) Despite a decrease in its turnover compared to last year, Alimentation Couche-Tard reported Tuesday a net profit of 819.2 million US for its second quarter, up from 810.4 million US for the same period a year earlier.

The Laval-based convenience store operator, which reports its results in US dollars, reported that its revenues amounted to US$16.4 billion in the second quarter, down 2.7% from the previous year. .

This decrease, however, is less marked than that reported by the company in the first quarter, at 16.3%.

According to Couche-Tard, the drop in its turnover in the second quarter is mainly attributable to a lower average selling price of fuel for road transport, but also to a lower demand for fuel for road transport than in the same period a year ago.

Earnings per share also stood at 85 US cents, compared to 79 US cents a year earlier.

In a statement, Couche-Tard President and CEO Brian Hannasch praised “notable progress across most of our key metrics,” even as the company saw a slowdown in its per-store sales in the U.S. -United.

This specific slowdown in the United States is partly attributable to weak cigarette sales. In September, Mr. Hannasch also reported “headwinds for the tobacco industry, not just for Couche-Tard.”

The Chief Financial Officer, Filipe Da Silva, for his part, highlighted that thanks to the company’s “financial discipline”, the normalized growth of operating expenses was limited to 1.5%, “a figure well lower than the current average inflation rate” which affects Couche-Tard’s operations.