After a month of shakeups to its executive roster, Canadian Tire last week announced a partnership with Royal Bank of Canada that aims to expand the reach of the retailer’s Triangle loyalty program while strengthening the lender’s Avion rewards plan.

Starting in 2026, select RBC credit and debit users will have the option to collect Canadian Tire Money more quickly when shopping at the corporation’s retail banners, including SportChek, Mark’s and, of course, Canadian Tire as part of the partnership.

News of the link-up came in a news release on Thursday, a day after Canadian Tire announced that Matt Moore (pictured), the current chief operating officer at Tim Hortons, would be taking on a newly created EVP and CCO role.

Moore is the leader of the digital and loyalty strategy at Tim Hortons and established the Tims Rewards program and app.

Moore’s appointment came three weeks after Canadian Tire announced a redesign of its senior leadership group under its $2 billion “True North” restructuring plan, which emphasizes retail growth, the expansion of Triangle Rewards and focused capital allocation.

Joscelyn Dosanjh, associate vice-president of communications at Canadian Tire, tells strategy that Moore will have a primary focus on changes to Triangle Rewards.

“Matt will be responsible for growing Triangle Rewards – including oversight of its partnerships with Petro-Canada and RBC – customer insights and core retail processes that enable horizontal, data-driven strategies for great customer experiences,” Dosanjh said.

A 2023 Caddle survey showed that as many as 52% of Canadians use Triangle, placing it behind only PC Optimum as the country’s most-used loyalty program. The main Triangle Rewards program had an estimated 11.3 million users as of the end of 2022.

Two years ago, Canadian Tire launched Triangle Select, a paid subscription that allows members to earn money faster on purchases at Canadian Tire and its subsidiaries.

And RBC’s Avion Rewards, Canada’s largest proprietary loyalty program, includes an extensive roster of more than 2,000 retail partners, according to Thursday’s news release.

Dosanjh said further details about the new Triangle-Avion loyalty system will be shared closer to the 2026 launch date.