by John Keller | Nov 1, 2011 | Customer News, Fuel Pricing Software, PriceAdvantage
Valero Retail Holdings, Inc., Valero Energy Corporation’s network of company-owned stores, has selected PriceAdvantage Fuel Price Management Software to manage and control retail fuel pricing for their one thousand Corner Store locations.
Long known for innovation and leadership in the Retail Petroleum Marketing industry, the Valero Corner Store team created their own in-house pricing application over 10 years ago. That application is approaching a technology end-of-life for the database. “We have been very successful with our own home-grown fuel pricing software, but it is time for us to add new functionality. After evaluating all available market solutions, we were pleased to find PriceAdvantage,” said Brian Skillern, Director of Fuel Transportation.
PriceAdvantage Fuel Price Management Software is a highly specialized retail fuel pricing solution for the Convenience Store industry. PriceAdvantage provides automation for the entire fuel pricing process, from collection of competitive surveys, to efficient and detailed analysis for best price determination, to rapid speed-to-the-street price change execution. It is this ability to change prices immediately at the Point of Sale, pumps and electronic price signs from the centralized headquarters location that makes the solution unique in the industry.
Aaron McHugh, Division Director says, “Valero is a best-in-class petroleum marketer, and we are excited to welcome Valero’s company-owned retail division as a customer and partner. Over the years we have assembled a team of software experts who are hyper-focused on creating easy-to-use and easy-to-deploy automated fuel pricing solutions. We are passionate about Fuel Pricing Software and we are pleased that Valero has recognized our system as the industry leading solution.”
Skyline Products, Inc. located in Colorado Springs, CO Skyline Products, Inc. has been delivering Enterprise class software solutions for over fifteen years. PriceAdvantage was birthed in 2005 in response to Retail Petroleum customer’s needs for remote price management from headquarters. In addition, Skyline Products, Inc. is involved in other vertical segments delivering both hardware and software solutions. Throughout America’s highways you will see both our Transportation (Intelligent Traffic Systems) and Petroleum (Electronic Gas Price Displays) solutions. Each industry is controlled with behind the scenes enterprise software solutions. For more information please visit www.skylineproducts.com or www.sellmoregas.com.
Valero Energy Corporation, through its subsidiaries, is an international manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels, other petrochemical products and power. Valero subsidiaries employ approximately 21,000 people, and assets include 16 petroleum refineries with a combined throughput capacity of approximately 3 million barrels per day, 10 ethanol plants with a combined production capacity of 1.2 billion gallons per year, and a 50-megawatt wind farm. Approximately 6,800 retail and branded wholesale outlets carry the Valero, Diamond Shamrock, Shamrock and Beacon brands in the United States and the Caribbean; Ultramar in Canada; and Texaco in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Valero is a Fortune 500 company based in San Antonio. Please visit www.valero.com for more information.
by John Keller | Oct 27, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
The Ball State Daily News reported a recent fuel price war between two c-stores racing each other to the basement. A new Phillips 66 store kicked things off with a grand opening celebration and a fuel price of $3.19 for regular. The BP station across the street lowered their price by $.10. The war was on, and each c-store kept dropping their fuel price by $.10 increments back and forth before settling on $2.19. For a brief time, the BP station was priced as low $1.99. The lines of cars to enter the c-stores got so long the local police department had to be called in to direct traffic. By 2pm, the BP store raised its price back to $3.19.
This is a great example of what happens when a fuels pricing strategy goes haywire. Once fuel prices get to be so out of whack with the market, abnormal traffic patterns ensue. From a fuel price management perspective, lesson learned is there is no substitute for fuel pricing analysts to use wisdom when setting optimized fuel prices. There’s no such thing as an easy button – the market is too dynamic to allow automation to run amok and take the place of human wisdom.
by John Keller | Oct 26, 2011 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization
CEFCO Convenience Stores has grown by approximately 60% this year. According to Brett Giesick, Chief Retail Officer quoted in today’s article in Convenience Store News, the reason why Fikes is able to grow so successfully is because of “having the right infrastructure.” Specificallly, Giesick cites their operations, marketing, and support teams for allowing CEFCO to achieve their planned growth.
The PriceAdvantage Fuels Price Management Solution is a key part of the infrastructure at CEFCO. Giesick and his team of Territory Managers use PriceAdvantage to carefully monitor the fuels volume sales of each store according to the latest daily import from PDI, compare it to fuels volume targets in a view with the latest competitor pricing trends, and from the same view send new fuel prices to each store. This allows CEFCO to execute fuel price changes according to their fuel price strategies in a fraction of the time it used to take with the fuel pricing solutions they had before PriceAdvantage.
True fuel price optimization can only be achieved through well executed fuel price strategies across the entire enterprise. And with PriceAdvantage, CEFCO is able to optimize their fuel prices, optimize fuel profits, and achieve their growth plans.
by John Keller | Oct 26, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Industry News
According to an article from Cars.com and USA Today, the US Department of Transportation reports that travel on US roadways through August 2011 has reached the lowest levels since 2003. Specifically, travel in the month of August 2011 was down 1.7% from the same period in 2010, as low as August 2009 during the recession. Rural interstate travel decreased 2.7% while urban travel was down 0.5%. The Northeast region saw travel drop 2.2% in August, while in the West travel dropped 1.2%.
From a Fuel Price Management perspective, fuel pricing analysts need to be aware of this report as yet another data point indicating that the size of the fuels market is on the decline. That makes for more heated c-store competition for fewer fuel gallons sold, market conditions where only the strongest survive.
by John Keller | Oct 26, 2011 | Customer News, Fuel Pricing Technology, PriceAdvantage
Today one of our PriceAdvantage customers had a key question they needed to answer: “Who made that price change?” Late last night during the third shift someone changed the fuel price at the store. Was it an authorized price change, or was someone trying to get away with something?
PriceAdvantage keeps a complete audit trail of every price change at every store, making it easy to see who initiated every price change throughout history. In mere seconds the fuel pricing team could see that the price change was initiated at the store, and wasn’t authorized by headquarters.
Store Managers quickly learn that when PriceAdvantage is handling fuel pricing, there are no more chances for “Friends and family hour.” And that’s one of the key ways to reach true fuel price optimization.
by John Keller | Oct 25, 2011 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy
One of the components of fuel price management strategies is the public expectations of short term future trends in gas prices. Public expectations of gas prices are influenced by the most recent news articles. Today MSNBC.COM published an article setting expectations that gas prices will likely lower throughout the remaining months of the year. The article cites the US Energy Information Administration as saying gas prices should decrease through the beginning of the new year. Patrick DeHaan, Senior Petroleum Analyst at GasBuddy, is cited as saying he expects gas prices to possibly lower to $3.25 by the end of the year.
The article goes on to explain that fuel prices should lower due to decreased demand in the winter months, and the lower cost of winter fuel.
Obviously this article isn’t enough to base an entire fuel price management strategy on, but it is a key piece of information worthy of attention. Articles like these lead to drivers keeping an eye out for lower fuel prices, and to some degree asking what is taking so long for gas prices to lower.
by John Keller | Oct 21, 2011 | Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology, Industry News, PriceAdvantage
Today Convenience Store News announced that Exxon just completed the sale of nearly 300 c-stores. Back in 2008, Exxon told USA Today they wanted to sell its c-stores because “it’s so hard to make money selling gas and diesel fuel to customers.”
Yes, Exxon, the days are over when you could simply open a store, fly your flag, and make money selling fuel. The retail fuel market is more dynamic and more competitive than ever. Fuel costs change daily, competitors are increasingly aggressive, and consumers are careful to pick where they buy fuel. It’s certainly not a business for the faint of heart.
And that’s precisely where fuel price management solutions like PriceAdvantage come in. Fuel Analysts use PriceAdvantage to quickly see what has changed in the market over night, and in a matter of minutes, their stores are implementing price changes to react. PriceAdvantage allows them to get the right price to the right store at the right time, not eight hours after the morning commute, but in time to maximize their fuel profits that same business day. Fuel Analysts use PriceAdvantage to carefully review their store / region / market performance by fuel margin and fuel volume, compared to target, and compared to last week, last month, and last year. Fuel Analysts make adjustments to fuel pricing strategies and tweak and tune to make necessary adjustments based on market changes, and to optimize prices across the enterprise. When competitor fuel prices change throughout the day, Fuel Analysts can choose to quickly respond with fuel price changes of their own no matter where they are, using their laptop or smart phone.
C-stores simply can’t compete by managing fuels prices with the old methods of spreadsheets, phone calls, and emails. It takes the closed loop fuels price management solution of PriceAdvantage to be profitable and to stay in the fuels price game.
by John Keller | Oct 11, 2011 | Retail Fuel Margins
According to Lundberg Survey, retail fuel margins dropped $.18 over the two week period ending October 7. On October 7, Regular grade retail fuel margins averaged 9.49 cents per gallon across the US.
Pooled retail fuel margin year to date across all fuels sits at 14.73 cents per gallon. That’s the highest retail fuel margin since 2008.
by John Keller | Oct 10, 2011 | Industry News
Numerous news stories today are predicting that fuel prices have hit bottom and are back on the rise. Several local stories are reporting that fuel prices have already begun to rise, including CNN who quotes sources from the Lundberg Survey as saying “It does suggest that this may be it for the decline.” News stories such as this are setting public expectations for fuel price increases in the future.
by John Keller | Oct 10, 2011 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Software, PriceAdvantage
CEFCO Convenience Stores announced they have acquired two more c-store sites, this time in Collinsville and Marion Mississippi. This purchase follows on the heels of CEFCO’s acquisition of 69 stores in August. Once this acquisition is complete, CEFCO will operate a total of 194 convenience stores throughout Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.
CEFCO uses PriceAdvantage fuel price management software solutions to handle all their retail fuel pricing. CEFCO also has Skyline electronic gas price signs that complete the closed loop fuel price management cycle from surveys, to fuel price optimization, to fuel price execution, to confirmation. The CEFCO PriceAdvantage implementation includes integration with VeriFone and Gilbarco POS systems, as well as their PDI system.
