by John Keller | Nov 29, 2011 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Technology
PriceAdvantage, a division of Skyline Products, announced today that The Spinx Company has been using PriceAdvantage at its 65 Spinx stores across the Carolinas. PriceAdvantage, a fuel price management solution, has given Spinx the ability to make better fuel pricing decisions given the real-time intelligence provided for each store, such as competitor survey data, volume histories and retail margins.
Spinx stores also utilize PriceAdvantage to feed price changes to the Radiant POS systems, pump and Skyline electronic price signs with the one click technology that is unique to PriceAdvantage.
“We couldn’t be happier that PriceAdvantage has replaced our previous fuel pricing solution”, says Stewart Spinks, founder and CEO of The Spinx Company. “It is a superior tool in that it gives us the ability to pull historical data easily, manage multiple price changes per day and provide a user-friendly interface at the headquarters and store level.”
Spinks adds, “We have found that our store managers are spending about 45% less time entering data into the system since we began using PriceAdvantage, giving them more time to focus on customers.”
Aaron McHugh, Head of PriceAdvantage division, adds “It’s invigorating to hear from an Industry Hall of Famer like Stewart Spinks that PriceAdvantage is providing The Spinx Company with a more efficient and effective fuel pricing tool.”
Stewart Spinks was recently inducted into the Convenience Store News Industry Hall of Fame for being a convenience store pioneer and innovator.
PriceAdvantage is a highly specialized retail fuel pricing solution for the Convenience Store industry, designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of a retailer’s pricing process. PriceAdvantage provides automation for the entire fuel pricing process, from collection of competitive surveys, to efficient and detailed analysis for best price determination, to rapid speed-to-the-street price change execution. The ability to change prices immediately at the POS, fuel pumps and electronic price signs from the centralized headquarters location with one click makes the solution unique in the industry.
About The Spinx Company
With The Spinx Co.’s leading edge technology and exceptional customer service, the company is “Making Life Easier” for customers. Headquartered in Greenville, S.C., Spinx operates 65 convenience retail stores in South Carolina and North Carolina. Founded in 1972 by Stewart Spinks, today the company is the largest privately held gasoline-convenience retailer in South Carolina and is ranked among the top U.S. convenience store chains in the country. For more information, visit www.spinx.com.
About Skyline Products
Skyline Products is the leading developer, manufacturer and provider of fuel pricing and central control software, electronic price displays and dynamic message signs to the fuels, transportation, and government vertical segments in North America. The PriceAdvantage division allows fuel retailers to collect competitive data, determine optimized fuel pricing and automate price changes at the POS, fuel pump and electronic price signs, creating a streamlined closed loop fuel pricing process. Company headquarters are located in Colorado Springs, CO. For more information about Skyline Products please visit www.skylineproducts.com or www.sellmoregas.com.
by John Keller | Nov 23, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Retail Fuel Margins
The latest MasterCard Spending Pulse survey reported retail fuel sales down 4.5% compared to the same period last year for the week ending November 18.
Holiday travel for this year is predicted to be higher than last year, but not enough to turn around the trend. Experts cite the causes as being high unemployment and low wages.
From a fuel price management perspective, this survey indicates the ongoing trend of fuels retailers chasing fewer fuel gallons, making the environment even more competitive and with less room for error. Convenience stores without the most advanced fuel price management solutions will find it increasingly difficult to effectively compete in these market conditions.
by John Keller | Nov 17, 2011 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions
Stan Sheetz, the CEO of Sheetz Inc., said in a Fox TV interview that Sheetz will be opening 100 new stores in North Carolina over the next 8 years. Sheetz has previously announced that North Carolina and West Virginia are its top markets for expansion.
Mr. Sheetz also said in the interview that when a new store opens, they open with a “very, very aggressive” fuel price. State laws in North Carolina allow for stores to have fuel prices below cost for the first 10 days of opening. Mr. Sheetz said “…when a store opens, Sheetz drops the price below cost, resulting in long lines and a lot of buzz.”
Sheetz has a strong partnership with Skyline Products for both electronic price signs and PriceAdvantage fuel pricing software. Sheetz uses this synergy to quickly adjust fuel prices at the electronic price sign, POS and pump. This round trip fuels pricing solution allows Sheetz to reach peak operational efficiency with their fuels price management.
From a fuels price management perspective, Sheetz competitors in North Carolina can expect aggressive fuel prices, especially aggressive during the first 10 days after opening a new store when Sheetz will likely price their fuel below cost.
by John Keller | Nov 16, 2011 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Industry News, PriceAdvantage
PriceAdvantage, a division of Skyline Products, announced today that CEFCO Convenience Stores has added 71 sites to its ongoing partnership. The new sites will be implementing PriceAdvantage, a fuel price management solution that has proven to be invaluable to CEFCO, across its network. The new sites are in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
“PriceAdvantage has increased our efficiency across the fuel pricing process but most significantly in the time it takes us to price our 194 sites”, says Brett Giesick, Chief Retail Officer of CEFCO Convenience Stores. “We have found that it takes us only 1-2 hours to complete price changes across the network, including updates to the POS, pump and electronic price signs. So naturally it was an easy decision to include the additional new sites in our partnership with Skyline.”
Aaron McHugh, Head of PriceAdvantage division, adds “We are elated that CEFCO has seen such an improvement in their fuel pricing process with PriceAdvantage, and we’re excited to be a part of their success.”
PriceAdvantage is a highly specialized retail fuel pricing solution for the Convenience Store industry, designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of a retailer’s pricing process. PriceAdvantage provides automation for the entire fuel pricing process, from collection of competitive surveys, to efficient and detailed analysis for best price determination, to rapid speed-to-the-street price change execution. The ability to change prices immediately at the POS, fuel pumps and electronic price signs from the centralized headquarters location with one click makes the solution unique in the industry.
by John Keller | Nov 16, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Retail Fuel Margins
The Bespoke Investment Group issued a statement saying that despite crude prices topping $100 a barrel today, retail fuels prices are not likely to rise in response. That’s because Bespoke says retail fuels prices have been responding much more closely to changes in Brent crude, than with WTI. And Brent crude has not gone up in price.
“As long as Brent crude continues to underperform WTI crude, rising oil prices will be less of a drag on US consumers than they have typically been in the past,” Bespoke wrote.
From a fuels price management perspective, this is important because fuel analysts may choose to stop tracking WTI prices, and instead focus on the performance of Brent crude, when anticipating future price moves.
by John Keller | Nov 9, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
In Spartanburg, SC, another fuel price war was initiated by a c-store grand opening. Promotional temporary fuel prices for a new QuikTrip caused a race to the fuel price basement. In response to the promotional pricing, the nearby Raceway and Kangaroo lowered their fuel prices, resulting in some of the lowest prices in the country, with unleaded fuel at one point hitting bottom at $2.80 per gallon. That was enough to cause unnatural traffic patterns to the point where state officials needed to be called in to solve the traffic problem.
This price war started over a month ago back in October, and still has a ripple effect in Spartanburg. GasBuddy reports as of today seven c-stores with unleaded fuel priced below $3.00 per gallon, with two stores at $2.83. The remaining 44 c-stores in Spartanburg are priced anywhere from $3.00/gallon to $3.35/gallon.
From a fuel price management perspective, it’s another lesson learned there is no substitute for fuel pricing analysts keeping up with local field market intelligence, and using human insight when setting optimized fuel prices. The retail fuel price market has too many unexpected influences that drive prices out of traditional patterns.
