by John Keller | Sep 10, 2012 | Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
Casey’s announced their retail fuel margins were $0.149 per gallon in Q1 of the 2013 fiscal year. That retail fuel margin is slightly ahead of their stated company goal of $0.140 per gallon. Retail fuel margins for the same period last year were $0.172 per gallon. As a comparison, Valero reported retail fuel margins of $0.30 per gallon for the quarter ending July 31. The Pantry reported retail fuel margins of $0.146 per gallon on August 7.
Same store retail fuel volumes were down .2%, but total gallons sold for the quarter were up 3.7% to 394.1 million gallons. CEO Robert J. Myers blamed the decreased same store fuel volumes on excessively hot weather in several of their areas of business.
With a store count of 1699, the monthly gallons per store average was 77,300 gallons. NACS reports the average c-store sells 124,000 gallons of fuel per store per month.
Casey’s has 18 new stores under construction and 27 new stores under written agreement to purchase. Casey’s has an annual goal of increasing their total number of stores by 4-6%. That would equate to between 68 and 100 new stores for the year. The same day Casey’s announced their quarterly earnings, they also announced they are acquiring 22 stores from Kum & Go.
by John Keller | Aug 27, 2012 | Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
BP has temporarily stopped distributing Premium and Midgrade gasoline to the Chicago area in order to further test the fuel from the Milwaukee terminal. Regular unleaded gasoline has already passed these quality tests and is in distribution to Northwest Indiana, Chicago, and Milwaukee.
BP reported to CBS news that 10,000 consumers have contacted BP to report issues caused by the bad fuel.
From a fuel price management perspective, BP dealers need to continue to recognize the bad public relations this mistake has caused, and use their fuel price optimization software to annotate this event in their records for future reference. Dealers selling a fuel brand other than BP may be able to adjust their fuel price optimization strategy to increase their retail fuel margins during this time when BP has such PR issues, and BP premium and midgrade is scarce.
by John Keller | Aug 27, 2012 | Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
Congratulations to Sheetz as they open their 426th store. Sheetz has been using PriceAdvantage as a key part of their gasoline pricing strategy for over three years and has credited PriceAdvantage with an estimated annual savings of $141,000. PriceAdvantage has reduced onsite service calls by 49% with its ability to remotely reset fuel prices. PriceAdvantage has also increased customer face-time by up to 50 hours per store manager per year.
PriceAdvantage allows Sheetz to instantly react to competitive market changes, and thereby maximize retail fuel margins.
“Our overriding team goal is to ensure that store managers can maximize their time with our customers,” says Mark Wilson, Director of Store Support. “This is a key corporate initiative and competitive advantage for Sheetz. To achieve that, I look for the smartest, most efficient technology in our devices that will allow for low maintenance and high productivity. PriceAdvantage gives us that for our electronic price signs, directly impacting our top line revenue.”
by John Keller | Aug 24, 2012 | Uncategorized
According to the AAA/IHS Global Insight 2012 Labor Day Holiday Travel Forecast, there will be 2.9% more people traveling 50 miles or more from home during the Labor Day weekend this year than last year. The Labor Day holiday is defined as Thursday, August 30 to Monday, September 3. This is a new post-recession high number of travelers, according to AAA.
From a fuel price optimization strategy perspective, it is important to make note of this prediction and possibly project more fuel volumes this next holiday weekend compared to previous years.
by John Keller | Aug 22, 2012 | PriceAdvantage
Congratulations to Parker’s for being recognized as one of the country’s Fastest Growing Companies according to Inc. Magazine. Earlier this year the Parker’s President and CEO Greg Parker was named “C-Store Innovator of the Year” by The Griffin Report.
Parker’s uses PriceAdvantage at each of their 27 stores to automate and streamline the process of changing fuel prices at their stores.
Greg Parker was quoted in an earlier press release this year as saying “We are always looking for innovative solutions to increase our efficiencies in the store, allowing our store employees to focus on customers and enhancing their shopping experience,” says Greg Parker, President and CEO of The Parker Companies. “PriceAdvantage Enterprise does exactly that by giving us control over fuel pricing from headquarters, or from the field, streamlining our overall fuel pricing process, helping to maximize profits and grow our business.”
The PriceAdvantage team is proud to partner with Parker’s and to contribute to their continued success.
