In today’s OPIS report, retail fuel margins showed yet another decrease, extending their loses to four consecutive weeks. Retail fuel margins dropped $0.018 per gallon to an average of $0.144 per gallon.
Average retail fuel margins across the US are now at the lowest levels since February of this year. Quarter to date retail fuel margins are down slightly to $0.203 per gallon.
On the second day of THE Tech EVENT put on by NACS, Scott Hartman, CEO and president of Rutter’s Farm Stores, and long-time PriceAdvantage customer (and user of the software), spoke about convenience store technology trends.
“Now we can data mine everything that happens in the store,” he said. “I can change my digital gasoline signs from my iPhone or iPad.”
Rutter’s has been using PriceAdvantage to set retail fuel prices at their stores and electronic Skyline signs since 2011. Mr. Hartman uses GasBuddy OpenStore on his mobile device to send prices to PriceAdvantage, leaving PriceAdvantage to take care of the fuel price management change and confirmation processes to the NCR POS and Skyline signs.
PriceAdvantage can then broadcast the latest prices out to GasBuddy and OPIS so that all social media and websites have the latest store price information, and company stores always appear on the map.
Scott Hartman’s ongoing commitment to and success with c-store technology has made him an inductee into the PCATS Hall of Fame. We at the PriceAdvantage team are honored to be associated with such a c-store technology icon and we look forward to our mutual ongoing success.
In another blog article, I wrote about how savvy fuel pricing analysts are optimizing fuel prices and margins by focusing on the other grades besides Unleaded Regular. In a recent Today in Energy article, the US EIA revealed that average pricing spreads between Premium and Unleaded is at an all-time high of $.30 per gallon, first reached at the end of 2012, and maintained so far in 2013.
That may seem startling to the long-time fuel analyst, but when viewed from a percentage of price standpoint, the spread has remained at relatively the same levels since mid-2009. From a fuel price management standpoint, that means if you’re used to maintaining the standard $.20 spread between Premium and Unleaded Regular from years ago, it may be time to revisit your fuel pricing spread strategies and come up to the averages seen across the country.
The latest OPIS report on May 3 shows average retail fuel margins in the US have dropped for the third consecutive week. This week the average retail fuel margins decreased $0.035 to $0.162 per gallon. That is the third week in a row where retail fuel margins have lowered by $0.03 per gallon or more.
This three week trend has brought the average US retail fuel margin to levels last seen March 1. Year to date average retail fuel margins continue to stand at the $0.173 per gallon level. Quarter to date average retail fuel margins are now at $0.207 per gallon.
Today Valero announced financial results for Q1 of this year, and it exceeded Wall Street expectations. From a fuel price management perspective, we’ll focus here on the retail division, now known as the company CST Brands.
The US Division of CST Brands had an operating income increase from $11 million in the first quarter of 2012 to $18 million in the first quarter of 2013, mainly due to higher fuel margins. Fuel margins per gallon increased from $.05 per gallon in 2012 to $0.08 per gallon in 2013. The gallons per day per site measurement held steady year over year, up slightly from 5,046 gallons per day per site in 2012 to 5,048 gallons per day per site in 2013.
The US Division of CST Brands has been using PriceAdvantage as their fuel price management system for all their retail stores since the fall of 2012. The average number of company-operated fuel sites for the quarter was 1033.
The Canadian division of CST Brands does not use PriceAdvantage as their fuel price management system. Fuel margins in Canada were the same year over year at $0.26 per gallon, but the total fuel volumes were down from 3.097 million gallons per day in 2012 to 2.987 gallons per day in 2013.
OPIS reported this week that average retail margins across the US dropped again. For the week ending April 26, average retail fuel margins were down $0.037 per gallon to $0.197 per gallon.
The drop in margins these past two weeks has slowed the growth in the year to date average margins, but at $0.173 per gallon, year to date margins are still the highest of the year. The six week average now stands at $0.215, just slightly above the Q1 average that was $0.212.