by John Keller | May 22, 2015 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News, PriceAdvantage
Today was the kickoff meeting for another PriceAdvantage Customer Advisory Board. The purpose of the PriceAdvantage Customer Advisory Board meetings are to provide industry updates, as well as product feedback and direction to the PriceAdvantage team. The PriceAdvantage CAB helps to be the eyes and ears of what’s going on at the front lines of the c-store industry. On this advisory board we have the wisdom of these industry leaders:
- Varish Goyal, President, Vintners Distributors
- Kyle Lawrence, President, By-Lo Oil (Speedy Q)
- Tom DiMercurio, CFO, Flyers
- Karen Meyer, Fuel Pricing Manager, J&H Oil
- Ben Stealy, Fuel Pricing Manager, Mapco
- Tom Navarre, VP Petroleum Marketing & Logistics, Family Express
In our meeting today, each member provided an overview of their business and the strategies they use to compete. Then we discussed future product versions and specific features of PriceAdvantage as a team so everyone could weigh in on what’s important.
Customer collaboration is an integral part of how we do business here at PriceAdvantage. I look forward to our ongoing meetings with this group, and learning from their collective wisdom.
by John Keller | Apr 29, 2015 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software, Industry News, PriceAdvantage
The PriceAdvantage team would like to extend a warm welcome to Get-n-Go as our latest c-store customer to join the PriceAdvantage family. Get-n-Go is using PriceAdvantage to automate and accelerate fuel pricing at their 18 convenience stores throughout South Dakota.
Get-n-Go selected PriceAdvantage based on their confidence that the software will help them price fuel more confidently and quickly.
“We’ve had our eye on PriceAdvantage for quite some time,” stated Dave Vande Kamp, Get-n-Go’s Controller. “It was simply a matter of timing. We were operating on an older version of the Gilbarco POS, and once we upgraded we were able to easily take advantage of the PriceAdvantage pre-built integration. Now all of our critical pricing data is streamlined and I can price fuel faster with great confidence that I am making a sound decision.”
Get-n-Go is running PriceAdvantage as a SaaS solution to leverage the benefits of a cloud service model including the low upfront cost, ease of implementation, and the maintenance and infrastructure cost benefits.
“The fact that I can price fuel from my phone is huge. I’m no longer tied to my desk and I have more time to focus on my other responsibilities,” stated Vande Kamp.
by John Keller | Mar 19, 2015 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Technology
Long-time PriceAdvantage customer Sheetz has opened two new locations in North Carolina this month, according to Convenience Store Decisions.
“Sheetz is experiencing a lot of growth companywide and we have done a tremendous amount of growth in the North Carolina market,” said Ryan Sheetz, director of brand strategy. “North Carolina is a great fit for us. We opened our 500th store in Thomasville and opened a second distribution center in Burlington last November.”
Sheetz has been using PriceAdvantage integrated to their Skyline signs since 2009. Since the beginning Sheetz has seen a significant ROI in maintenance service costs alone as you can read here.
Congratulations to Sheetz and their continued success. We’re honored to have such a long term partnership.
by John Keller | Mar 16, 2015 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software, Industry News
The PriceAdvantage team would like to extend a warm welcome to E-Z Mart as our latest customer and partner. The PriceAdvantage solution at E-Z Mart includes out-of-the-box integrations with PDI and the VeriFone Sapphire POS.
“We wanted greater speed and control over our fuel pricing,” said Liff Luthringer, vice president of petroleum operations for E-Z Mart. “We chose PriceAdvantage because it allows us to push instant price changes from the store support center and more efficiently manage and analyze the data used in pricing decisions. More time is now available for analyzing the hard pricing decisions and finding ways to improve the performance of our fuel business.” E-Z Mart tested PriceAdvantage software at a few stores, Luthringer added, and “ran the numbers. We know that PriceAdvantage will make us faster and more competitive, and we are confident it will make us more profitable.” More information about the PriceAdvantage solution at E-Z Mart can be found here.
E-Z Mart is ranked number 34 on the Convenience Store and Fuel News Top 101 (link here) with 300 stores. Convenience Store News featured E-Z Mart as a cover story in their August 2014 issue, the online version of which is at this link.
by John Keller | Feb 3, 2015 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News
According to Convenience Store News, longtime PriceAdvantage customer Royal Farms has opened a new location in Delaware, near the headquarters of Wawa. This is the first Royal Farms location in Delaware County, where Wawa is based. Royal Farms operates 160 Convenience Stores across the east coast.
Royal Farms Marketing Manager said “Every market we move into, we have had competition. And it’s not just from other convenience stores. It’s from grocery stores and fast-food restaurants.” Royal Farms President John Kemp attended the grand-opening event and presented donations to seven local charities.
Royal Farms has been using PriceAdvantage as their fuel price management system integrated with their Skyline Products electronic gas price signs for over seven years. Rob Rinehart, Director of Retail Petroleum had this to say:
“It is a penny up and penny down game. PriceAdvantage presents information to me in a simple and easy way so that I can review each store quickly to determine what price I want posted at the street in the next half an hour. We achieved a return on our investment in 12 months.”
Read more about their solution here.
by John Keller | Dec 5, 2014 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
OPEC announced on Thanksgiving that they would not cut back their production. According to the Wall Street Journal, Venezuela was pushing for a considerable cut in OPEC production prior to the meeting. When Russia, which isn’t a member of OPEC, decided to maintain their production levels and not join in any plan to cut output, Saudi Arabia argued that the group must defend market share rather than prices. That decision became final as the cartel is now appearing that they will not push for supply cuts in the immediate future.
Saudi Arabia is now anticipating oil prices could settle at $60 a barrel, approximately $9 a barrel less than now. According to the US Energy Information Administration, if every $10 drop in the price of a barrel of crude is passed on to the consumer, that would equate to a $0.24 drop in the price of a gallon of gas.
From a fuel price management perspective, that means we could see average gas prices in the $0.20 to $0.30 range lower than today in the coming weeks. And as always, falling gas prices mean lower fuel revenues but stronger retail fuel margins.
What else can we expect from these lower oil prices? Auto manufacturers have reported robust November sales, especially in trucks and luxury vehicles that get lower gas mileage, and perhaps require premium fuel. Meanwhile, Toyota has reported that sales of its hybrid Prius are down 14% year over year. This could mean a slowing of the ongoing trend of reduced demand for fuel caused by increasingly more fuel efficient vehicles on the street. But of course it is important to consider that even today’s less than highly fuel efficient new vehicles are likely more fuel efficient than the vehicles they are replacing. So it is unlikely that the reduced fuel demand trend will reverse completely.
We live in historic times, as witnessed by the constant news articles about oil prices and gas prices. If savvy fuel analysts play their cards right and invest in premiere retail fuel pricing software technology, there is quite a bit of money to be made.
