Murphy USA showed strength in its core areas, fuel and nicotine, in 2024, President and CEO Andrew Clyde said in the convenience-store chain’s fourth-quarter 2024 earnings results, which were released Wednesday afternoon. Overall, though, the company was down when it came to net income for the fourth quarter of 2024 and for the full year.
“Murphy USA’s strong performance in 2024 demonstrates the resilience, durability and effectiveness of our advantaged business model,” Clyde said. “Strength in our core areas, particularly our fuel and nicotine categories, continued to drive significant value, with retail fuel margins up 50 basis points year-over-year, despite lower volatility and a flatter price profile. Total merchandise margin dollars increased nearly 4% year-over-year, despite challenges in our Northeast market especially for food retailers.”
The chain accelerated its new-store activity in 2024, Clyde said, completing 32 new-to-industry stores and 47 raze-and-rebuilds. There was a total of 1,757 Murphy USA/Express and QuickChek stores as of Dec. 31, and it has plans to keep growing its store count in 2025.
- Murphy USA is No. 4 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
Murphy USA is increasing its growth trajectory in 2025 and 2026 as it focuses on long-term growth opportunities, Clyde said. Its 2025 guidance showed that Murphy USA will open up to 50 new stores and up to 30 raze-and-rebuilds in the coming year.
“Looking ahead, we remain committed to organic growth in attractive markets, leveraging our strengths and capabilities to take share and investing in innovation to deliver exceptional value to our customers,” Clyde said.
Some highlights from the company's earnings include:
- Net income was $142.5 million in fourth-quarter 2024 compared to $150 million in fourth-quarter 2023. For the full year 2024, net income was $502.5 million, compared to $556.8 million in 2023.
- Total fuel contribution was 32.5 cents per gallon (cpg) for both the current and prior-year quarter. For the full year 2024, total fuel contribution was 30.5 cpg, compared to 31.4 cpg in 2023.
- Total retail gallons decreased 1%, and volumes on a same store sales basis declined 2.8% in fourth-quarter 2024, compared to the prior-year quarter. Total retail gallons were 4.8 billion for both 2024 and 2023.
- Merchandise contribution dollars for fourth-quarter 2024 increased 5.6% to $208.8 million compared to fourth-quarter 2023. For the full year 2024, merchandise contribution dollars increased 3.8% to $833.7 million from the prior year.
- Total nicotine contribution dollars increased 6.1% and non-nicotine contribution dollars increased 4.4% in fourth-quarter 2024 compared to fourth-quarter 2023.
El Dorado, Arkansas-based Murphy USA operates one of the nation’s largest convenience-store chains, operating in 27 states, located primarily in the Southwest, Southeast, Midwest and Northeast, the majority of which are next to Walmart Supercenters. It acquired the QuickChek brand in January 2021.
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