by John Keller | Mar 15, 2013 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Retail Fuel Margins
In the weekly OPIS report, average US retail fuel margins showed a drop of $0.043 per gallon. That’s a reverse in the trend across the previous two weeks where retail fuel margins increased nearly $0.16 per gallon.
Retail fuel margins now stand at $0.218 per gallon across the US, the second highest of the year, and at levels last seen in November 2012.
So far this year the average US retail fuel margin for all commodities is $0.151 per gallon. This provides a good comparison baseline when we review upcoming quarterly financial announcements from the large c-store chains.
by John Keller | Mar 12, 2013 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology, Retail Fuel Margins
In their Short-Term Energy Outlook report released today, the US Energy Information Administration issued a revised lower forecast for US gasoline consumption over the next two years. The report includes predictions for US gasoline consumption across each quarter in 2013 and 2014, and in every quarter the revised forecast is .2% to .8% lower than the US EIA predictions from their previous Short-Term Energy Outlook report.
The US EIA reports that fuel volume totals for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 will remain essentially unchanged, explaining that increased travel will be offset by increased fuel efficiency.
From a fuel price management perspective, the news is not as bad as it could be; while fuel volumes have been in a steady decline for the past eight years, at least total anticipated fuel volumes are not expected to decline over this year and next.
The fuel pricing strategy and fuel price optimization game intensifies each year as c-stores battle for an ever-shrinking fuel volume pie. PriceAdvantage fuel pricing software is the key to optimizing both volumes and margins in this battle.
by John Keller | Mar 11, 2013 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology
The PriceAdvantage team would like to congratulate The Spinx Company on their successful acquisition of three more c-stores, bringing their total store count to 69.
The Spinx Company has been a PriceAdvantage customer since 2011, with a complete fuel price management solution that encompasses their Gilbarco and VeriFone point of sale systems, Skyline electronic price signs, as well as their PDI ERP system. The fuel managers at The Spinx Company use PriceAdvantage to measure the performance of each store and every market as per the volumes and margins imported from PDI. Fuel managers monitor every competitive price move via the data feed imports from OPIS Radius reports. Fuel managers initiate price changes from the iPad, with PriceAdvantage managing the closed loop fuel price change process, complete with confirmation time stamps recording when each price change is complete.
Says Stewart Spinks, Founder of The Spinx Company and member of the Convenience Store News Hall of Fame, “We couldn’t be happier that PriceAdvantage has replaced our previous fuel pricing solution. 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 userfriendly interface at the headquarters and store level.”
Congratulations, The Spinx Company. We look forward to our continued long-term partnership for years to come.
by John Keller | Jun 4, 2012 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization
The US Energy Information Administration reported today that US retail fuel prices dropped again, making it an eight week decline since peaking on April 9. Fuel prices for unleaded regular are now at $3.518 across the US, down from $3.575 last week, and down from $3.73 the same week last year.
Across the different regional PADDs, fuel price declines were found across the board, ranging from $.05 in the Atlantic, East Coast, and New England regions, to $.02 per gallon in the Rocky Mountain and West Coast regions.
by John Keller | May 29, 2012 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization
According to the US EIA, US Regular Fuel Prices fell for the 7th straight week, this time down $0.045 per gallon from last week. US Regular fuel prices are now $.12 per gallon below this time last year. The biggest drops were in the Lower Atlantic region and the Gulf Coast, where fuel prices lowered just under $.07 per gallon. The Rocky Mountain and West Coast regions were down a little over a penny.
by John Keller | May 9, 2012 | Fuel Price Optimization, Retail Fuel Margins
In its Q1 financial report, Susser Holdings reported retail fuel margins for the quarter were at $0.133 per gallon, down $0.02 from last year, but up $0.01 from the average Q1 results over the past five years.
Retail fuel gallons sold increased 8.8% compared to last year. Average gallons sold per store per week improved 5.8% to approximately 30,000 gallons, or approximately 133,000 gallons per month per store. That average store per gallon figure is approximately 7% above the national store average according to NACS. Q1 is typically Susser’s lowest volume quarter, due to seasonality.
Susser operates 540 stores under the Stripes brand. Susser expects to open 25-35 new dealer sites this year.