by John Keller | Mar 6, 2012 | Fuel Price Management, Retail Fuel Margins
NACS held a media briefing on gas prices and one of the highlights was their report on the average retail fuel mark-up thus far in 2012. For the past six years going back to 2006, the retail fuel mark-up as a percent of price was between 5.1% and 6.0%. So far in 2012, the retail fuel mark-up has been only 3.8%.
It’s a well known industry fact that as retail fuel prices increase, c-stores suffer from low retail fuel margins. The long suffering fuel price increases so far in 2012 have been rough on retail fuel margins across the US. Couple the low margins with the continued trend of lowering fuel volumes, and certainly the c-store retail fuel business is not for the faint of heart.
As the retail fuel business continues to be more and more competitive, expect to see continued consolidation, where those who have invested in fuel price management systems are the only ones who are able to survive.
by John Keller | Mar 1, 2012 | Retail Fuel Margins
Kroger reported in their financial report retail fuel margins of $0.124 per gallon for the fourth quarter compared to $0.102 per gallon for the previous year. For the entire fiscal year, retail fuel margins were $0.139 per gallon compared to $0.122 for the previous year.
Fuel volumes grew at the same pace as the previous year.
by John Keller | Feb 29, 2012 | Retail Fuel Margins
Western Refining, operators of GIANT, Mustang, Sundial, and Howdy’s c-stores, announced retail fuel margins were $.15 for the latest quarter, compared to $.17 for the same quarter previous year.
Retail fuel volumes were 70.296 million gallons for the quarter, up from 51.472 million gallons for the same quarter previous year. Number of c-stores was 209. That’s up from 150 for the same quarter previous year, 37 of which were added the last quarter.
On a monthly fuel volume per store basis, Western sold 112,114 gallons of fuel at each store on average.
by John Keller | Feb 22, 2012 | Retail Fuel Margins
Susser Holdings reported improved fuels volumes and retail fuel margins in their latest quarterly report.
Total fuel volumes for Q4 reached 200.1 million gallons. That’s a 9.7% increase in fuel volumes over the previous year. Average fuel gallons sold per store per week reached 28,900 gallons. That’s an increase of 7.2% over the previous year.
Retail gross retail fuel margins reached 18.6 cents per gallon, up from 15.0 cents per gallon the previous year.
At year end, Susser Holdings had 541 stores in operation.
by John Keller | Feb 13, 2012 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
Demand for ethanol fuel has dropped off dramatically since the tax credit expired earlier this year. The $.45 tax credit for ethanol fuel expired January 1, 2012.
In addition, an unfavorable currency exchange with Brazil has helped add to the overall ethanol fuel surpluses at plants across Iowa.
As demand wanes, and surpluses accrue, wholesale prices will have to adapt. We’ll keep an eye on the retail fuel pricing result. In the meantime, from a fuel price management perspective, expect lower ethanol fuel volume sales to be less than last year.
The Des Moines Register article reporting on the drop in ethanol fuel demand can be found here.
by John Keller | Feb 13, 2012 | Industry News, Retail Fuel Margins
In today’s US Energy Information Administration “Today’s Gasoline Prices” report, the Rocky Mountain region shows average fuel prices for Regular Unleaded are $0.33 per gallon lower than the next lowest region. In the Rocky Mountains, average fuel prices for Regular Unleaded are $3.071 per gallon, compared to the Midwest region which is the next lowest region with Regular Unleaded fuel price averages of $3.407 per gallon.
As usual, the West Coast region has fuel prices where average Regular Unleaded is priced at $3.727.
