Susser Holdings announced in their earnings report that retail fuel margins were at $.178/gallon after credit card fees for the past six months, compared to $.140 for the previous year.
They announced “higher margins in our fuel business” as contributing to their “record results” in the second quarter total revenues.
TravelCenters of America announced in their quarterly earnings report that retail fuel margins per gallon during the 2011 second quarter was $0.162 versus $0.147 for the 2010 period. CEO Tom O’Brien attributed falling fuel prices during May and June for helping these retail fuel margins.
On a same-site basis, their fuel sales volume increased by 2.1% in the 2011 second quarter versus the 2010 second quarter. TravelCenters believes the trend of modest year-over-year sales growth “reflects the condition of the U.S. economy and the trucking industry, which has improved over the prior year, but done so slowly and with considerable inconsistency”.
On a same-site basis, their 2011 second quarter gross retail fuel margin was approximately $9.7 million or 13.1% more than in the comparable 2010 quarter. Andrew Rebholz, CFO, said “The increased level of gross retail fuel margin resulted from both the increased level of sales volume as well as a $0.016 increase in margin per gallon. This reflects the fact that we’ve declined to chase less profitable fuel sales during 2011.”
In today’s US Energy Information Adminstration weekly fuel price report, the USEIA revealed a $.04 drop for the national average price of Unleaded Regular fuel. The US national average retail fuel price of unleaded gasoline now sits at $3.67/gallon, a gallon of midgrade dropped to $3.79, and a gallon of premium dropped to $3.92.
All regional areas saw fuel price decreases except for the Rocky Mountains, who saw a $.01 increase. The Gulf Coast and the Midwest each saw a $.05 decrease.
As for individual states, Minnesota had the largest fuel price decrease of the week, where prices lowered $.09/gallon for unleaded, with an average price of $3.73/gallon. All states now have Unleaded averages under $4.00 for the first time in two weeks.
The highest average price in the nation for Unleaded continues to be in New York, at $3.99/gallon. In Chicago, a gallon of Unleaded is priced the highest in any major city, at $3.96 per gallon which is $.05 less than last week.
In Murphy Oil’s quarterly earnings report, US retail fuel margins were $.199 for Q2 and $.146 gallon for the first six months of the year. Quarterly fuel margins were up $.03 compared to last year, and for the first six months, $.04 compared to last year.
US fuel sales volume per store was about 10% below 2010 levels.
Valero Energy in their quarterly report announced that US retail fuel margins for the past three months were $.204 per gallon. That’s an increase of nearly $.02 compared to the same time period last year.
For the six months ended June 30, retail fuel margins were $.142 per gallon, essentially unchanged compared to $.148 for the same six months the previous year.
For the three months ended June 30, Valero retail sales in the US were 5,094 gallons per day per site (154,518 gallons per month per site), down 2% from 5,196 gallons per day per site the previous year. For the six months ended June 30, Valero retail sales in the US were down 1.5% from the previous year, with 2011 sales reaching 4,995 gallons per day per site (151,515 gallons per month per site) compared to 5,070 gallons per day per site for the same period in 2010.
According to NACS, the average US c-store sells 121,000 gallons of fuel per month annually. That means over the past three months, Valero stores sold about 27% more than the US national monthly average.
According to Valero’s press release, “Valero’s retail segment continued its record-setting performance with $135 million in operating income, which was the best second quarter in Valero’s history. The increase in operating income was mainly due to higher retail fuel margins….”
Clearly Valero is tremendously successful with their retail fuel price management solutions.
Valero has nearly 1000 company operated stores in the US.