by John Keller | Jun 28, 2013 | Fuel Price Management, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
According to the latest OPIS report, retail fuel margins across the USA had a strong recovery this week, increasing $0.075 gallon to an average of $0.274 per gallon. Average retail fuel margins across the USA are now the highest of the year.
The year to date average retail fuel margin now stands at $0.177 per gallon, while the Q2 average retail fuel margin is $0.191 per gallon. The six week average jumped $0.025 per gallon to reach $0.197 per gallon. The month of June finished strong, with an average retail fuel margin of $0.210 per gallon.
From a fuel management perspective, these are critical benchmarks to use as a comparison for your own operations. When analyzing options for fuel management software systems, the question to ask is, “how difficult is it to access this information for my own comparisons?”. PriceAdvantage fuel software provides rich analytics to quickly slice and dice margin information for individual stores, markets, and the overall enterprise, out of the box, with no database expertise required.
by John Keller | Jun 21, 2013 | Fuel Price Optimization, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
OPIS reported today that retail fuel margins across the USA had a slight rebound this week. The average retail fuel margin across the country now stands at $0.199 per gallon, up $0.047 from last week. The increase this week returned the year to date margin to the level of two weeks ago, now at $0.171 per gallon.
The average fuel margins for Q2 also inched up slightly to $0.184 per gallon. The six week average fuel margin is now at $0.172 per gallon, up $0.009 per gallon from last week.
With one week remaining in the quarter, it appears that average fuel margins across the USA for Q2 will be $0.025 higher than the average fuel margins for Q1. That is welcome relief for the retail fuel industry, which needs to operate at approximately $0.15 margins to be at the break-even point.
by John Keller | Jun 14, 2013 | Fuel Price Optimization, Retail Fuel Margins
According to OPIS, the average national US retail fuel margin dropped $0.064 per gallon this week. The drop this week brought the overall retail fuel margin average to $0.152 per gallon, the lowest in three weeks.
The year to date average retail fuel margin is holding steady at $0.170 per gallon. The quarter to date average retail fuel margin is down slightly at $0.183 per gallon. The six week average retail fuel margin is down $.002 per gallon to $0.163 per gallon.
Over the past nine weeks, there have only been two weeks of increases, with the remainder being decreases from the previous week.
There are only two weeks remaining in the quarter, and without drastic increases, average margins will not achieve the level seen at the end of Q1, where average margins were at $0.220 per gallon.
by John Keller | Jun 7, 2013 | Fuel Price Optimization, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
OPIS reported today that retail fuel margins held steady this week dipping only $0.002 per gallon across the USA. Average retail fuel margins now stand at $0.216 per gallon. The year to date average is up slightly to $0.171 per gallon, and the Q2 average is up slightly to $0.186 per gallon. The six week average is also up slightly to $0.165 per gallon.
This is good news for fuel retailers who are in great need to recoup the low margins of early and mid May.
From a fuel software perspective, these conditions continue to drive toward the need to keep a watchful eye, to make sure competitors are held in check, and to balance the fine line between fuel volume gains and maintaining fuel margins as long as possible.
by John Keller | May 31, 2013 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
According to the latest OPIS report, retail fuel margins saw their biggest increase in 12 weeks, with a $0.094 per gallon rise. Average retail fuel margins across the USA now stand at $0.218 per gallon, the highest margins all May.
Average year to date fuel margins were up slightly to $0.169 per gallon. Quarter to date fuel margins reversed their six week trend and increased to $0.183 per gallon. The six week average for fuel margins now stands at $0.161 per gallon.
A large part of this gain in fuel margins can be attributed to the mid-west refineries coming back online so that costs can come down, allowing fuel retailers to temporarily hold steady with retail fuel pricing and recoup their lower margins seen over the past month.
But traditionally these higher margins prove to be only temporary, as fuel retailers begin to drop their prices to gain a competitive edge and gain volumes. As always, retail fuel software is critical to win this cat and mouse game, balancing volumes and margins while remaining competitive and maximizing profits.
by John Keller | May 24, 2013 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Software, Retail Fuel Margins
According to the latest OPIS report, average retail fuel margins in the US were essentially unchanged this week. Retail fuel margins were up $0.001 per gallon to stand at $0.124 per gallon. Year to date retail fuel margins were down $0.002 to $0.167 per gallon. Average retail fuel margins for this quarter dropped $0.008 and now stand at $0.178 per gallon.
According to NACS, at these margins c-stores are operating at break-even levels at best, after all costs are taken into consideration. The mid-west refinery problems in the US are now clearing up, so that will provide cost reductions in the mid-west and Rocky Mountains, allowing c-stores to catch up even as they drop their retail prices. But it is this shift in cost and margins that require careful calculations to balance volumes with margins, and remain competitive while the market evolves.
Fuel software for retail fuel price management systems are the only way the fuel analyst can make the most profit in these turbulent times.
