Jacques D’Amours

"Next Bouchard had to find trustworthy employees to run the store while he took care of developing the enterprise. He immediately thought of Jacques D’Amours, a brilliant young man he had met seven years before when they both worked at Perrette. Bouchard was a replacement manager at the time, and D’Amours—then barely 14 years old—was a jack of all trades. He had no option but to mature early; his father had left the family and his mother was raising 11 children on her own. All of the D’Amours children had to start working at a very young age."

"This type of exercise was nothing new for the Couche-Tard team—although they were used to a more modest scale. They had become experts in their unique choreography: Jacques D’Amours handled leases and distribution, Richard Fortin examined the financial records and debts, Réal Plourde analyzed human resources and the operational structure, and Alain Bouchard looked at real estate and the global business plan. Each team member was important, each had his own strengths. It was a given that no decision of that scale could be taken unless they all agreed."