by John Keller | Oct 30, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
An article in CSPNet.com reported the latest C-Store Grab-N-Go research note by Raymond James & Associates shows retail fuel margins were strong in September, following record margins in July and August. September margins were the third-highest average for the month in the past 10 years.
For the entire third quarter, margins hit a record average, beating 2013 by 18%. Retail gasoline margins averaged between 20 and 29 cents per gallon in Q3. Diesel margins were up $0.12 per gallon, 60% higher than 2013.
The Raymond James research is based on following publically held c-store chains including Casey’s General Stores, The Pantry, Susser Petroleum Partners (Sunoco LP), Murphy USA, CST Brands and TravelCenters of America.
by John Keller | Oct 21, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Software, Industry News
NACS announced new members on their Board of Directors, and two of the five new members represent PriceAdvantage customers.
Anthony Bartys, senior vice president and COO of CST Brands joins the NACS Board, as does Stephen Christopher Spinks, CEO of The Spinx Company.
Other PriceAdvantage customers already on the NACS Board of Directors include Joseph Sheetz from Sheetz, Edward Holmes from Holmes Oil, and Kevin Smartt of Kwik Chek Food Stores.
The PriceAdvantage team is proud to partner with such influential industry leaders as those on the NACS Board of Directors.
by John Keller | Sep 5, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News, PriceAdvantage
There’s a great article on CNBC about how “mom and pop shops are flying to the cloud“, explaining how small businesses are now able to leverage cloud technology and bypass large infrastructure investments to level the playing field against much larger companies.
Nowhere are we seeing better examples of this than in the c-store industry, where c-store chains of 100 stores and under are using PriceAdvantage for fuel price management.
Back in early January of 2012, Parker’s was an early adapter of PriceAdvantage in the cloud, managing retail fuel pricing for their stores. Then it was Volta Oil in June of 2012 for their 60 stores, followed by Flyers Energy for all their locations in December, 2012. Then in 2013 it was five more c-store chains deploying PriceAdvantage in the cloud, including Kocolene, Family Express, Slidell Oil’s Purple Cow Stores, Vintners Distributors, and Sam’s Mart.
In 2014 we’ve added several more PriceAdvantage customers to our cloud environment, including Pic-n-Pac, Speedy Q Markets, J & H Oil, and Kwik Chek Food Stores.
Our cloud customers love that they can leave the infrastructure setup to the PriceAdvantage team, and have their fuel price management solution up and running so quickly. Upgrades to new versions are a snap as well, and require little to no IT resources on their end. And since all our cloud customers are using Rackspace servers, we can all trust that the data is safe and secure.
Gone are the days when only the largest companies can afford the investment required to install and maintain a robust fuel price management system. The cloud solution of PriceAdvantage with Rackspace makes it affordable to everyone.
by John Keller | Aug 30, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News, PriceAdvantage
The Syracuse Post-Standard newspaper interviewed Kim Bowers, the CEO of CST Brands, which recently acquired the chain of Nice N Easy stores in New York. The full interview can be found here.
Ms. Bowers’ daughter attends Hamilton College and frequented the local Nice N Easy store. Her daughter would often email photos of the store to her mom and tell her how much she liked it.
Ms. Bowers’ said CST Brands was attracted to the change because Nice N Easy had such great community involvement, and outstanding customer support. She said Nice N Easy customers should expect no changes, other than some more product offerings from the CST Brands private label brand “Fresh Choices”. The CEO said that at CST Brands it’s common for the customer to come inside the store because of the relationship they have with the people inside the store.
From a fuel price management perspective, this customer service focus and attention to the community plays into strategies that may not need to provide the lowest fuel prices in town. Customers are willing to by fuel at stores they like – just like the old saying goes “People do business with people who they like to do business with.”
by John Keller | Aug 26, 2014 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Industry News
As reported by Convenience Store Decisions, Parker’s was just named one of the fastest growing companies according to Inc. Magazine. This is the third consecutive year Parker’s has made the list. That is an honor shared by companies like Intuit, Zappos, and Pandora.
“This celebrated achievement is a testament to our employees and the trust and confidence that our customers and business partners have placed in us,” said Parker’s CEO Greg Parker. “This phenomenal growth is only possible as the result of a coordinated team effort.”
The PriceAdvantage team is proud to have Parker’s as a customer and business partner, and we look forward to our ongoing success.
by John Keller | Aug 12, 2014 | Customer News, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
The latest financial results from Murphy USA show a decline in both same store fuel volumes and overall retail fuel margins.
For the three months ending June 30, 2014, gallons sold per store per month was down 2.6% compared to the same period last year. The retail fuel margin average decreased from $0.156 per gallon last year to $0.132 per gallon this year.
CEO Andrew Clyde attributed the decreased margins to a difficult environment.
Murphy USA has 1,228 total locations in operation that include 1,035 Murphy USA sites and 193 Murphy Express sites. There are currently 20 new sites under construction.
