by John Keller | Jul 23, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
According to an online article on the Barron’s site today, “CST Brands, one of the largest (c-store) operators, could ring up impressive gains for investors….Damian Witkowski, an analyst at Gabelli & Co., puts the private market value of the shares at $48. That’s nearly 50% higher than Tuesday’s close of $32.94. While that valuation gap might not close right away, in the next year the stock could jump 20% as earnings improve.”
Why is this analyst so bullish on CST Brands? Because of how well CST is managing the balance between fuel margins and volumes. “Since its spinoff from Valero ( VLO ) in May 2013, CST has been boosting fuel margins and opening new larger format stores under its Corner Store moniker…CST has been seeing success from its strategy. As an independent retailer of fuel, CST has been able to focus on improving fuel margins, rather than selling more fuel, as it had when it was part of Valero. In the March quarter, margins jumped 19% to 10 cents per gallon, from the same period a year ago.”
To what can we attribute this fuel price management success? PriceAdvantage, which CST Brands began implementing in July 2012, finishing the rollout by the end of that year. In the latest earnings report, retail fuel margins before credit card fees were$0.139 per gallon, up from $0.116 per gallon for the same period in 2013. Though volumes were down year over year, something easily attributed to the overall decline of fuel volumes in the industry, I wrote a blog article about the success CST Brands is seeing as they manage the balance between fuel margins and volumes.
The fuel team at CST Brands is a great partner of Skyline Products, both on the PriceAdvantage side and the Electronic Price Sign side. The CST Brands fuel team has worked closely with the PriceAdvantage team to help us develop the best-in-industry volume, margin, commodity, and competitor analysis interfaces. The benefit to the rest of the industry is that these interfaces are provided as part of the standard set of analysis views available with PriceAdvantage. These views are not custom one-offs that cause problems with future software upgrades – they are standard out-of-the-box features that pose no grief with upgrades.
We’re proud to work so closely with CST Brands, and look forward to including their ongoing wisdom and insight in future versions of the PriceAdvantage software.
by John Keller | Jul 21, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Technology
Greg Parker, President and CEO of PriceAdvantage customer Parker’s, explains the constant evolution of the c-store industry in this exceptional article of Convenience Store Decisions.
In the article, Mr. Parker talks about how Parker’s embraces technological advances to serve the customer. One example is how Parker’s has become ‘data-centric,’ always focused on in-depth analysis of numbers, such as sales to purchase, SKU analysis and sales to gross profit.
PriceAdvantage plays a key role in the fuel business at Parker’s, providing the rich analysis and fuel price optimization to manage the Parker’s brand. Watch a brief video with Jeff Bush where he discusses the way he uses PriceAdvantage to manage fuel at Parker’s.
by John Keller | Jul 18, 2014 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Retail Fuel Margins
The OPIS report today revealed that retail fuel margins have risen for the third straight week. This week the average retail fuel margin is up $0.048 per gallon, reaching $0.276 per gallon, the highest retail fuel margin of the year, and the highest since September of last year.
The year to date average now stands at $0.171 per gallon, the highest since February 7. The six week average stands at $0.202, the highest of the year, and the highest since November 22 of last year.
So far this quarter is shaping up to have the highest average retail margin of any quarter this year. Currently the average retail fuel margin for the quarter is 0.252, a full $0.06 per gallon higher than the quarterly average at this point last year.
The equivalent day last year the average retail fuel margin was only $0.100 per gallon which means we’re currently $0.176 per gallon above last year right now.
Certainly these margins can’t last forever. But the savvy fuel analyst will make the most of these times when volumes are solid in the summer, and margins are higher than ever.
by John Keller | Jul 18, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Industry News
As reported by Convenience Store News, PriceAdvantage Customer Advisory Board member Parker’s just won numerous awards, including “Best Convenience Store”, “Best Luncheon Bargain,” “Best Deli” and “Best She Crab Soup” from readers of the Savannah Morning News and The Island Packet newspapers.
In addition, Parker’s finished in the top three of the metro area’s retail stores and restaurants for: “Best Sweet Tea”, “Best Downtown Shop”, “Best Soul Food”, “Best Fried Chicken”, “Best Shrimp & Grits” and “Best Wine Selection” for Parker’s Market Urban Gourmet.
Parker’s has been a PriceAdvantage customer for over two years, taking full advantage of the integrations with Skyline electronic price signs, VeriFone POS, GasBuddy OpenStore, and PriceAdvantage Optimization. Watch a short video with Jeff Bush, Director of Fuel Management at Parker’s here.
by John Keller | Jul 17, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Industry News
Convenience Store Decisions reported today that Alex Olympidis, Director of Operations for PriceAdvantage customer Family Express Corporation, has joined the Board of Directors for the Young Executives Organization within the National Advisory Group.
Alex replaces Ben Jatlow who worked at PriceAdvantage customer High’s of Baltimore before recently joining NCR.
The National Advisory Group mission is to provide retail leaders of small to mid-size and family-owned convenience chains a peer-to-peer forum for the exchange of ideas to improve their business performance.
The Young Executives Organization within the NAG cultivates young talent in the convenience store and petroleum industry through implementation of education and networking. YEO accomplishes this mission by leveraging the experience of NAG members to help foster superior leadership skills. YEO members are industry leaders who are approximately 40 years of age or younger. Members are entrepreneurs, leading top businesses and actively pursuing a higher level of professionalism in the convenience store and petroleum marketing industry.
