The study tour, 15-18 October 2009, will include hosted site visits, presentations from leading Canadian convenience retailers and an industry dinner.

The programme will also include an optional visit to Niagara Falls. The group will then fly on to the NACS Show in Las Vegas (18-21/22 October 2009).

Petro-Canada, the Canadian forecourt convenience operator, is developing its Neighbours convenience store format as a destination outlet, famous for coffee and food service.

The Neighbours format and branding is separate from the fuel brand, attracting commuters and female shoppers with a food-for-now offer, rather than impulse purchases.

Ed Burcher, senior director for food service at Petro-Canada, sees Neighbours as the next generation of convenience store.

“We wanted to leapfrog the competition and move away from our heavy dependence on tobacco and snacks and over-reliance on fuel and car wash,” he says.

The new design places food at the centre and includes speciality coffees rather than self-serve, freshly made sandwiches, a signature panini offer plus all-day breakfast. Inside, pod merchandising allows for an open flow with open case merchandising on soft drinks.

The exterior, meanwhile, is stone-fronted with a patio and outside seating area.

The Toronto store tour will also include visits to other leading retailers including Whole Foods Market, Couche Tard, Esso on the Run, Tim Horton’s, Pioneer Petroleum, Sobey’s and Richtree Market Restaurants.

The trip will also provide an opportunity for international convenience retailers to start to prepare for pending future bans on the display of tobacco products.

The tour will educate international retailers on the likely impact of the tobacco display ban to their businesses in the future and suggest strategies to deal with it.

For full details of the tour and prices, click the below link: http://www.insightreport.co.uk/conferences/us_nacs2009/index.html