Susser Holdings announced in their earnings report that retail fuel margins were at $.178/gallon after credit card fees for the past six months, compared to $.140 for the previous year.
They announced “higher margins in our fuel business” as contributing to their “record results” in the second quarter total revenues.
TravelCenters of America announced in their quarterly earnings report that retail fuel margins per gallon during the 2011 second quarter was $0.162 versus $0.147 for the 2010 period. CEO Tom O’Brien attributed falling fuel prices during May and June for helping these retail fuel margins.
On a same-site basis, their fuel sales volume increased by 2.1% in the 2011 second quarter versus the 2010 second quarter. TravelCenters believes the trend of modest year-over-year sales growth “reflects the condition of the U.S. economy and the trucking industry, which has improved over the prior year, but done so slowly and with considerable inconsistency”.
On a same-site basis, their 2011 second quarter gross retail fuel margin was approximately $9.7 million or 13.1% more than in the comparable 2010 quarter. Andrew Rebholz, CFO, said “The increased level of gross retail fuel margin resulted from both the increased level of sales volume as well as a $0.016 increase in margin per gallon. This reflects the fact that we’ve declined to chase less profitable fuel sales during 2011.”
In Murphy Oil’s quarterly earnings report, US retail fuel margins were $.199 for Q2 and $.146 gallon for the first six months of the year. Quarterly fuel margins were up $.03 compared to last year, and for the first six months, $.04 compared to last year.
US fuel sales volume per store was about 10% below 2010 levels.
Valero Energy in their quarterly report announced that US retail fuel margins for the past three months were $.204 per gallon. That’s an increase of nearly $.02 compared to the same time period last year.
For the six months ended June 30, retail fuel margins were $.142 per gallon, essentially unchanged compared to $.148 for the same six months the previous year.
For the three months ended June 30, Valero retail sales in the US were 5,094 gallons per day per site (154,518 gallons per month per site), down 2% from 5,196 gallons per day per site the previous year. For the six months ended June 30, Valero retail sales in the US were down 1.5% from the previous year, with 2011 sales reaching 4,995 gallons per day per site (151,515 gallons per month per site) compared to 5,070 gallons per day per site for the same period in 2010.
According to NACS, the average US c-store sells 121,000 gallons of fuel per month annually. That means over the past three months, Valero stores sold about 27% more than the US national monthly average.
According to Valero’s press release, “Valero’s retail segment continued its record-setting performance with $135 million in operating income, which was the best second quarter in Valero’s history. The increase in operating income was mainly due to higher retail fuel margins….”
Clearly Valero is tremendously successful with their retail fuel price management solutions.
Valero has nearly 1000 company operated stores in the US.
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. in their quarterly report announced that US retail fuel margins for the past three months were $.14 per gallon. That’s a decrease of 1.2% compared to the same time period last year.
For the 12 months ended April 25, retail fuel margins were $.1579 per gallon, up from $.1451 for the same 12 months the previous year.
For the three months ended April 25, Couche-Tard retail sales in the US were approximately 145,000 gallons per month per site. Same-store US motor fuel volume was up .3% for the quarter.
According to NACS, the average US c-store sells 121,000 gallons of fuel per month annually. That means over the past three months, Couche-Tard stores sold about 20% more than the US national monthly average.
Couche-Tard currently has a total store count of 5795.
There’s a great MSNBC news article out today discussing the role of the US Federal Government in helping fuel prices trend downward. The key takeaway for the Fuel Price Manager is that fuel prices are going to continue their downward trend of recent days. From a Fuel Price Management perspective, that means it’s a critical moment to invest in fuel pricing solutions that allow the continued monitoring of wholesale costs, and the competitor fuel price reaction. As cost drops, now is the time to increase retail fuel profits, while carefully managing the gradual fuel price decreases that the consumer expects.
News agencies are making it common public knowledge that retail fuel prices are quick to rise when wholesale costs increase, and slow to drop when wholesale costs decrease. But these agencies are setting customer expectations for retail fuel prices to drop over the coming months. That means people will be looking for price decreases, and will be quick to jump on them with a fill-up when they see a well-advertised price.
Here are highlights from the article:
The full article may be found here.