Canadian Tire Corp. is rebranding the vast majority of its gas stations under the Petro-Canada banner, and the two companies are teaming up to expand the reach of their loyalty programs under a new partnership.
The Toronto-based retailer and Calgary-based Suncor announced the partnership on Wednesday. While the loyalty programs will remain separately owned, members of each will now be able to earn points at both companies’ gas stations, starting this fall.
Canadian Tire’s Triangle Rewards program currently has more than 11-million active members, and the Petro-Points program has more than 3-million active members.
The retailer, which also owns store banners including Sport Chek, Mark’s and Party City, is in the midst of a four-year, $3.4-billion investment in its operations. A key pillar of that plan is expanding its loyalty program, whose members tend to spend more at its stores than other shoppers. The partnership with Petro-Canada, which will increase Triangle members’ access to rewards from Canadian Tire’s 282 gas stations to more than 1,800 Petro locations, is a bid to make the program more attractive to shoppers.
Canadian Tire did not provide further information about whether it would also allow Petro-Points members to earn or redeem points at its retail banners.
The company’s goal is to increase purchases by Triangle members to 63 per cent of sales, up from 58 per cent at the time the program was announced in March of 2022. This year, Canadian Tire also launched its subscription-based Triangle Select program, which charges $89 per year plus taxes for upgraded loyalty memberships offering more points on purchases and other bonuses.
Also on Wednesday, the companies announced that more than 200 of Canadian Tire’s Gas+ fuel sites will be rebranded as Petro-Canada stations over the next several years, though they will remain owned by Canadian Tire. Suncor will also now be the retailer’s primary fuel providers at its stations, which will represent a 17 per cent increase in Petro-Canada’s retail fuel sales volume compared to 2022, according to a news release.
Susan Krashinsky Robertson