by John Keller | May 20, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
The Associated Press continues to set consumer expectations that they can expect to pay less at the pump this summer then the summer of 2009.
Highlights of the article:
“Prices for heating oil, gasoline and Brent crude all dropped by at least 3 percent. “People are saying it’s time to get out,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research. Earlier this year, Lynch stood out from many of his peers by predicting that oil prices would fall. “The market has gotten way ahead of itself,” Lynch said. “People kept saying that soon demand will go up and inventories will go down. But that’s not happening.”
“Traders started getting nervous as the debt crisis unfolded in Europe. U.S. government data showing that Americans continue to have a relatively weak appetite for fuel have sunk energy prices even further.”
“If the world doesn’t start sopping up excess supplies, oil prices may fall into the $40-per-barrel range this year, Lynch said.”
“At the pump, retail gasoline prices dropped 1.2 cents overnight to a new national average of $2.84 a gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded is 1.9 cents cheaper than it was a month ago, but it’s 50.6 cents more expensive than a year ago. Experts say gas prices have likely peaked already this year, and it should cost less to fill up this summer than in the summer of 2009. That’s good news for the travel industry as Americans get ready to hit the highways over the Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of the summer driving season.
The full AP article can be read here.
by John Keller | May 4, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Technology, PriceAdvantage
PriceAdvantage 3.2, the latest fuels pricing solution from Skyline Products is now available. This latest release includes key new features based on customer request.
PriceAdvantage adds the Gilbarco Passport to its list of supported POS integrations. Other already supported POS systems include Radiant and VeriFone. All PriceAdvantage POS integrations allow fuel price managers to directly post prices to the street from headquarters. Each POS integration enables a fully integrated price change process which saves time at all levels, creating a more streamlined operation, and maintaining more control.
PriceAdvantage 3.2 adds real-time sign intelligence, giving technicians more insight into exactly what is going with signs at the store level. Sign issues can be brought to attention more quickly allowing them to be resolved before they become a problem.
Version 3.2 also adds support for PDI Enterprise imports. Now fuel managers can see daily, up-to-date PDI Enterprise information on volume and cost. It is this insight from PDI Enterprise that allows fuel managers to make the best price optimization decisions.
by John Keller | Apr 14, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News, PriceAdvantage, Retail Fuel Margins
Skyline Products announced today that they have launched a new separate division to focus solely on their patent-pending PriceAdvantage™ software that is literally changing the way the convenience store industry manages fuel pricing.
The industry has taken notice. “Customers like Sheetz, Royal Farms, Fikes Wholesale, Spinx and others are faster, more efficient, fully automated way to run their fuel business,” says Aaron McHugh, who is leading the charge for the new PriceAdvantage software division.
Sheetz saw $141,000 cost savings, Fikes Wholesale, Spinx and Rutter’s are now controlling price changes from headquarters to their pumps, POS and electronic signs. “With the tactical elements fully automated, our customers can better focus on their strategy,” says McHugh. The return on investment for PriceAdvantage is often less than 12 months making this one of the most effective and efficient tools in the industry.
Seven years ago, this long-time hardware and software company saw an opportunity to dramatically increase their customers’ fuel profits by providing fuel managers with critical competitive information, making it simple and quick to implement price changes. PriceAdvantage puts the optimal price at the fuel manager’s fingertips and allows them to command every price change from headquarters. This maximizes fuel profitability by guaranteeing that the right price is the price is posted.
Greg Stadjuhar, Skyline Vice President of Sales says, “With our long time involvement in the petroleum industry, we recognized an opportunity to leverage the ingenuity and success we’d experienced with command and control software in the transportation industry for the last twenty years. It became clear very quickly that we had the right formula. Almost immediately, PriceAdvantage became a tremendous success for Skyline and our customers.”
Skyline has been so successful with PriceAdvantage they are launching a new division dedicated solely to its continued development and success. “The market has been in need of this for a while. If we can put a man on the moon, why do fuel price managers still have to manually hunt down competitive and market data, and call every store for a price change?” says McHugh. “We’ve solved that problem, and we are the only company doing it. The time is right, the market is ready, and we are delivering.”
Underscoring their commitment, they have hired software industry veterans to help implement a strong infrastructure and accelerate their success. Joining McHugh’s team are John Keller and Quentin Goin, each bringing more than 13 years of business-to-business software industry experience.
Sr. Product Manager, John Keller, says, “This is an exciting and compelling opportunity for me. I thrive on taking customer and market input, and helping create a solution that they don’t know how they ever lived without. Skyline’s PriceAdvantage software began something that will allow us to literally revolutionize the way fuel prices are managed. This is only the beginning of an industry-wide shift and we are on the forefront making it happen.”
A perfect compliment to Keller’s skills, Quentin Goin, Sales and Implementation Engineer, works side-by-side with customers and implements a configured PriceAdvantage solution to match their needs. Passionate about his work, an animated Goin says, “I have been helping customers solve problems with technology since 1997, and I have never seen such a rapid and considerable return on investment as Skyline customers get with PriceAdvantage.”
Says McHugh, “Skyline’s innovation and commitment to solving these problems is driving expansion and growth even in a tough economy. The contribution of these two accomplished software industry experts has already increased the speed at which we are delivering high quality solutions to our customers.”
by John Keller | Mar 29, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Industry News, PriceAdvantage
The PriceAdvantage division of Skyline Products was featured in the Gazette Telegraph, the local newspaper of Colorado Springs . The article titled “Company seeks to make changing fuel prices easier for retailers” appeared in the March 29, 2010 edition. Featured in the story are Aaron McHugh, Director of the PriceAdvantage Division, and Greg Stadjuhar, Vice President of Sales and Marketing and co-owner of Skyline Products.
The article may be found here.
by John Keller | Mar 15, 2010 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Retail Fuel Margins
Every year around this season we see c-store fuel prices begin a gradual increase from spring to summer. This Forbes article explains the primary reason behind this fuel pricing strategy as being related to EPA federal regulations around emissions. Summer fuel must meet regulatory requirements imposed on refiners: summer blends of fuel must not turn to vapor in summer temperatures, otherwise the vapor contributes to air pollution. This summer blend costs more to produce, and consequently pushes up the price of fuel at the pump.
This is a positive article from the perspective of the Fuel Manager because it clearly explains to the layman that these annual price increases are not caused by c-stores trying to up their profits. It’s a rational explanation that anyone can understand.
You may find the entire article here.
by John Keller | Mar 10, 2010 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Technology
According to Convenience Store News, the SPINX convenience store chain has acquired ten more c-stores. All ten stores are located in South Carolina, and will be re-branded to the SPINX name. With this acquisition, SPINX now owns and operates 74 c-stores.
Spinx has been effectively utilizing the PriceAdvantage fuel pricing software solution from Skyline Products to optimize their fuel prices in each market, and rapidly push fuel prices to the street from their headquarters office. The SPINX implementation includes pushing fuel prices to the sign.
The Convenience Store News article may be found here.
