NEW YORK -- Despite Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, record-high gasoline prices and painful spikes in credit-card fees, industry numbers tied to gross profit dollars and same-store sales paint 2005 as a banner year for petroleum retail and convenience store operators, according to an industry consultant who tracks c-store financials.
Study figures showed per-store gross profit dollars rose 7%, going from $27,300 in the nine months ending September 2004 up to $29,200 the same nine-month period ending September 2005, according to numbers provided by Columbia, [image-nocss] Mo.-based CSX LLC. The data was revealed during a CSPNetwork CyberConference titled How's Business 2005: 3rd Quarter Review. The conference was sponsored by BIC and R.J. Reynolds.
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For its study, CSX compiled data from 74 companies representing approximately 3,400 stores in the United States. In-store sales numbers were up 5.9%, going from $95,400 in 2004 to $101,000 in 2005.
In 2005, we saw great dynamics with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and fuel shortages, said Dick Meyer, a partner with CSX, which is a research firm that tracks the c-store industry. We saw street prices go to $2, then to $3. But what happened? Pre-tax profits [went] up.
The CSX study showed pretax profits for the first nine months of the year at $4,200 per store per month, up an impressive 57.4% over the previous nine-month period ending September 2004, when pretax profits were $2,700. Meyer also noted regional disparities, pointing out how pre-tax profits grew a robust 145% in the Southeast while only a modest 26.4% in the south central area of the country.
While the price per gallon of gasoline rose 24.8% in these time periods$1.73 per gallon in the nine-month period ending September 2004 to $2.15 for September 2005fuel margins increased 13.4% from 11.9 cents per gallon in 2004 to 13.5 cents in 2005. Much of the news on the gasoline front was dampened by rising credit-card fees, Meyer noted, saying that fees rose 33% during the time period in question.
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