Quick Fuel Increases Fuel Sales 186%
Client: Quick Fuel
Location: Midwest and Southern United States
Number of Stores: 52
Quick Fuel is a 4th-generation family-owned business operating 52 automated commercial fueling stations and 200 mobile fueling trucks. Like most card-lock locations, 80-90% of Quick Fuel’s business was conducted between 5am-6pm through fleet card transactions and anchor accounts. By installing Skyline retail price signs and using PriceAdvantage to optimize retail fuel prices, Quick Fuel was able to increase fuel sales by 186% per month at just one location alone – and projects as much as 30% additional growth.
“Success is all about controlling driver behavior to control volume. By pricing our fuel faster and more accurately and by adding bold, distinct price signs to our card-lock locations, we’ve substantially increased business,” says Josh Tippin, Director – Automated Facilities at Quick Fuel. “The combination of PriceAdvantage fuel pricing software and Skyline price signs provided remarkable fuel sales increases and ROI.”
Benefits of the PriceAdvantage / Skyline combination:
Remove manual process and spreadsheets to save time and reduce errors.
Utilize pricing strategies to monitor replacement costs, gather competitive prices, and establish appropriate retail prices.
Leverage patented technology to conduct full-loop price changes and confirmation between PriceAdvantage, JD Edwards, and Skyline price signs.
Attract new business with bold, legible price signs – both retail and new anchor customers.
"The combination of PriceAdvantage and Skyline price signs provided remarkable FUEL SALES INCREASES and ROI."
Josh Tippin,
Results
Quick Fuel’s previous manual fuel pricing process required four people to touch pricing every day, sometimes as much as 1-2 hours per person, for just one daily price change. This six-eight hour, five-step process (aka giant spreadsheet) included pulling OPIS and retail prices, calculating price vs. cost, and entering new prices in JD Edwards. It was often plagued by human error.
Using PriceAdvantage to execute pricing strategies, Quick Fuel surpassed their net income budgets in 2014 and 2015 by 45%. Additionally, PriceAdvantage eliminated tedious manual processes by automating and synchronizing key data sources – essentially reducing man hours by one full-time equivalent. Quick Fuel then leveraged those savings to invest in a full-time pricing analyst to help maximize both fuel sales and margins and increase competitiveness.
Quick Fuel sells two things: fuel and time. At most retail locations, it can take as long as 24 minutes to fill a normal delivery truck. But thanks to advanced technology and high-volume pumps, Quick Fuel can fill a truck in as little as seven minutes. The Quick Fuel team knew that by adding a retail price sign – they would attract new retail and commercial customers who would appreciate competitive fuel prices and rapid service.
Josh selected Skyline price signs for a number of reasons. First, only Skyline signs boast a proprietary, patented technology that supports full loop automation - communicating that requested price changes were indeed made. Next, the quality of the Skyline signs – including legibility, LED longevity, automated brightness control, and advanced diagnostics – justified the investment. Josh shared, “I know that investing in great technology gives us a competitive advantage. I may have paid slightly more for Skyline signs – but it was worth it due to the quality, integrations, and superior customer service."
Quick Fuel installed its first Skyline price sign at its Lamar Road facility in Memphis, TN during December 2015. Initially, Quick Fuel calculated that the ROI on their Skyline sign investment would require 16 months – it actually only took 7.9 months. Fuel volume increased 49.7% from December to March 2016. Even more significant was the 186% YTD increase in fuel volume for March 2016 as well as a 36% increase in total gross margin. A Skyline sign was installed at a second, high volume Quick Fuel site during December 2015. That site generated a 15% year-over-year increase - nearly maximizing that site’s output capacity!
The combination of PriceAdvantage and Skyline price signs has proved itself as a catalyst for growth. Quick Fuel will install Skyline signs to 12 additional sites in 2016 AND added a pricing analyst to their team. This pricing analyst will utilize PriceAdvantage to delve deeper into analytics, ensure they are where they need to be in the market, help drive business, and continue growth – freeing Josh and the other team members to focus on other business initiatives.
