by John Keller | Mar 14, 2014 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Software, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
The latest OPIS report shows that average retail fuel margins across the US dipped slightly this week. The average retail fuel margin average now stands at $0.145 per gallon, down $0.012 per gallon. The year to date retail fuel margin average is $0.159. The six week average is $0.148 per gallon, down for the fourth consecutive week.
The equivalent day this time last year saw average retail fuel margins at $0.218 per gallon. Still, even with margins that high for this specific week last year, the year to date margins for 2013 at this point in time were $0.151 per gallon, so average retail fuel margins this year are up $0.008 compared to 2013.
Last year retail fuel margins remained flat to finish off the quarter. Hopefully history will repeat itself and we’ll see a strong finish to 2014 Q1 margins and remain at the $0.159 level.
by John Keller | Mar 13, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Software
It’s interesting to mine retail fuel information from financial results of publicly held c-store companies. For example, take a look at the numbers achieved by CST Brands and compare them to Susser for the 2013 fiscal year.
Go beyond the store count, and the fact that CST Brands is managing nearly twice as many stores. Zero in on the specifics of gallons per store and gross margin in cents per gallon. Then extrapolate the average fuel profit per store in 2013. The results are displayed in the table below.
| | Stores | Gallons Sold | Gallons/Store | Gross Margin (CPG) | Average Profit Per Store in 2013 |
| CST Brands | 1,036 | 1,889,565,580 | 1,823,905 | $0.140 | $255,347 |
| Susser | 561 | 936,232,000 | 1,668,863 | $0.114 | $190,250 |
| | | | | Difference | $65,096 |
Not only is CST Brands out performing on fuel volumes, but on fuel margins as well.
These results lead to the question, what is CST Brands doing so right? Certainly one answer has to be that CST Brands has been using PriceAdvantage as their retail fuels software for over one year now, and achieving great results.
As one PriceAdvantage customer put it “It helps when you have PriceAdvantage to manage stores!”
by John Keller | Mar 13, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Software
The PriceAdvantage team would like to extend a warm family welcome to Speedy Q Markets, our latest partner and customer. Speedy Q Markets is the convenience store business under the umbrella of By-Lo Oil Company.
Speedy Q Markets successfully implemented a pilot program using PDI as their back-office software, and VeriFone Sapphire as their POS. This PriceAdvantage implementation is yet another one in the cloud. It is interesting to note that PriceAdvantage implementations in the cloud now outnumber implementations on-premise behind corporate firewalls.
Speedy Q Markets needed a solution that would allow them to remain competitive in markets where prices are changing multiple times a day. According to Kyle Lawrence, President of Speedy Q Markets, “We were quite impressed with how easy the PriceAdvantage software and the Skyline team was to work with. They got us exactly what we needed”.
Speedy Q Markets compete across the thumb region of Michigan. Their parent, the By-Lo Oil Company, has been family owned and operated since 1962.
Welcome Speedy Q Markets – we look forward to our mutual ongoing success together!
by John Keller | Mar 7, 2014 | Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
Today’s OPIS report shows the average retail fuel margin across the US rose $0.023 per gallon this week to $0.157 per gallon. That’s the second consecutive margin increase, returning average fuel prices to levels last seen one month ago.
The year to date average is $0.160 per gallon and the six week average is $0.154 per gallon.
It was a year ago this week that retail fuel margins jumped nearly $0.10 per gallon, where they reached a high for the 2013 year to date of $0.261 per gallon. That means current retail fuel margin levels are now nearly $0.11 per gallon below last year.
Last year at this time we saw two consecutive margin decreases, and then a particularly difficult spring, where out of ten consecutive weeks from March into May, there were only two weeks showing margin increases. We can only hope that prices have already reached seasonal highs, giving retail fuel margins a chance to catch up and perhaps even gain some ground.
by John Keller | Mar 5, 2014 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software
When you are managing the volatile and highly competitive retail fuel business of today, you need the best near-real-time information you can get in order to gain a competitive advantage. But at many levels within the organization, the data is simply not readily available in near-real-time. And if this data is available, it is not presented in a meaningful way for managers of retail fuel to quickly see answers to their questions. For example, we have found that accounting reports at the end of the week, month and quarter fall far short of providing retail fuel managers what they need.
PriceAdvantage provides 26 industry-specific reports and SNAP analytics designed specifically with the fuel manager in mind, equipping him with the insight needed to make the strategic decisions that rise above the competition. Our integrations with back office partners like PDI, Pinnacle, and TelaPoint make data retrieval and data presentation a core competency of PriceAdvantage.
For example, the PriceAdvantage Volume Correlation report allows the fuel manager to see the correlation of in-store sales with fuel sales. View market trends graphically and in heat maps so you can quickly identify any strategy changes happening in the market landscape. Use scorecard reports to see the store execution of fuel pricing responsibilities, allowing the fuel pricing team to make pricing decisions hour to hour, and equipping executives with the insight they need to make strategic market decisions.
When you manage your retail fuel business with the PriceAdvantage solution, you are working with a partner who can make you successful with the largest and most price-sensitive product category: FUEL.
