CEFCO Case Study

Case Study

From Status Quo To Contender

How CEFCO Reinvented Their Game

“I have everything I need on one screen and can change prices at all 124 stores in less than an hour. It’s hard to pinpoint revenue gained by getting accurate prices to the stores fast, but I can tell you it’s significant.”

— Mark Lapierre, Fuel Coordinator Manager, CEFCO

Results

Faster. Collection, analysis and price changes in less than an hour for all 124 stores.
More Control. Posted prices verified at all stores, 24x7. 100% price control with Gilbarco, VeriFone and electronic sign integrations.
Bigger Profits. Detailed real-time analysis allows immediate course corrections with alerts from OPIS and store performance notifications with PDI integration.

Challenges

Fuel Manager spending hours each morning collecting information.
Three separate systems required.
Pricing off by up to $0.10 at certain locations.
Price changes hit the street too late.

Solution

Implement and execute on an intelligent, consistent pricing strategy based on OPIS and PDI industry data.
Automate fuel price management with PriceAdvantage, exponentially improving efficiency.
Integrate with VeriFone and Gilbarco POS systems.

“I took every single store up in price today in less than an hour. With PriceAdvantage, I had peace of mind that it was done, and done right. No more guesswork.”

— Mark Lapierre, Fuel Coordinator Manager, CEFCO

When CEFCO saw the opportunity to maximize fuel profits, they did some research. Soon the executive team was looking at hard numbers detailing the amount of fuel profits being left on the table. “If we can improve our fuel gross profit by a half-penny it would make quite an impact on the bottom line,” says Mark Lapierre, Fuel Coordinator Manager at CEFCO. “We knew we could do better as an organization with the right vision and technology.”

Question Everything

CEFCO was not afraid to challenge the status quo. They began to question everything. They knew that technology could significantly improve efficiency. Without it they were dealing with redundant efforts, unreliable data, manual processes, technology limitations and lack of complete information to make solid long-term decisions. “We did our homework,” states Lapierre. They created a thorough industry, research-intensive analysis that fed into an honest, intelligent business case. Then they crafted a carefully thought out and adaptable retail pricing strategy for all CEFCO locations.

Change the Game

CEFCO’s first move was to expand Skyline’s PriceAdvantage software from one store to twelve. With PriceAdvantage they had real-time competitive surveys, access to current prices at every store and “what if” pricing scenarios based on pre-set pricing rules. Once the right price was determined, they could simply push the price change to the stores and receive automated confirmation.

The pricing process, which previously took up to 5 hours, now takes just 45 minutes. “The amount of time we saved was reason enough to change our old methods.” The pilot was a success. CEFCO now had:

Price changes with a click of a button.
Real-time OPIS data streamlined directly into PriceAdvantage for fast, fully-informed price changes.
Visual graphs leveraging data from PDI to preempt issues, set targets & spot trends.
Fully automated imports of daily wholesale costs, freights and taxes — all within a single screen in PriceAdvantage.
BlackBerry email notifications sent to field staff for late surveys, delayed price changes or pricing issues.

The stores also benefited. “The store managers had more sales time with customers and fewer headaches,” said Lapierre. “They were ecstatic.”

Expand Aggressively

Expanding the benefits company-wide, CEFCO brought the rest of their multi-brand stores online as quickly as possible. With an aggressive rollout schedule and a simple training guide, the team started in Texas where they could meet with each district in person. Says Lapierre, “We had a one hour training sessions and went live two days later.”

Web conferencing reduced travel time and expenses as the team trained a new district on Friday, took them live the following Tuesday, then trained the next district on the following Friday until all stores were live on PriceAdvantage software. They completed their rollout in just five months. Lapierre recalls, “The rollouts went smoothly. The only challenge we had was related to the outdated technology in some of the stores.”

Automate Fully

CEFCO also reviewed the point-of-sale (POS) systems and price signs at each store, getting a clear picture of which stores they could fully automate using PriceAdvantage to push prices to the POS, pump and sign. PriceAdvantage’s integration with VeriFone Sapphire and Gilbarco Passport made it even easier. “In almost every store with the VeriFone and Gilbarco POS, we can change everything from headquarters,” says Lapierre. “We plan to implement Skyline electronic signs which will save us even more time and money.”

Review Results

“My favorite result is the speed at which we get things done now. We have one source of truth in PriceAdvantage, and we can trust the data to be accurate. It’s hard to pinpoint the revenue gained by getting accurate pricing to the stores fast, but I can tell you it’s significant,” shares Lapierre.“ Having real-time data is a killer competitive advantage.” He is referring to their integration with the OPIS Radius Report, which provides current competitive intelligence right where he needs it - inside PriceAdvantage. "Now we can see when a competitor moves even if our store isn't watching. Every fuel manager wishes he had more eyes watching the competitors for them. And the integration with PDI gives us visual graphics of trends and issues so we can resolve them fast. “

“We have everything we need on one screen, and we can change prices at all 124 stores in less than an hour. Who wouldn’t want that kind of control over their fuel prices?”

Always Look For A Better Way — What's Next?

CEFCO isn’t done yet. They plan to integrate all their Gilbarco Passport POS systems, install electronic signs where needed, and implement additional PriceAdvantage features that will help them manage everything from a mobile phone. CEFCO is not afraid to challenge the status quo, and they won’t leave any stone unturned. “A year ago we realized things needed to change. PriceAdvantage has been a huge step in the right direction.” What is CEFCO looking forward to? “We will be even more nimble when we schedule future price changes based on time of day and drive times - that’s when we can implement even more aggressive strategies.”

PriceAdvantage is a division of Skyline Products, headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO. For more information on PriceAdvantage, visit www.sellmoregas.com.

For more information on CEFCO, visit www.cefcostores.com. For more information on PDI, visit www.profdata.com. For more information on OPIS, visit www.opisnet.com.