By Keith Reid
A new partnership between NACS and OPIS was the driving force behind the 2020 Fuel Leaders supplement published by Fuels Market News and NACS. OPIS tracks the performance of over 250 fuel retailers and ranks them in an annual report. The inaugural 2020 Fuel Leaders report uses a core subset of that data to provide NACS and FMN readers with a solid overview of the industry’s top 50 fuel operators.
The top five fuel leaders in 2020 were:
- Wawa –Wawa, Pa.-based Wawa operates 704 sites in six states.
- QuikTrip –Tulsa, Okla.-based QuikTrip operates 872 sites in 11 states.
- Sheetz – Altoona, Pa.-based Sheetz operates 625 sites in seven states.
- QuickChek – Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based QuickChek operates 90 sites in two states.
- Maverik – Salt Lake City, Utah-based Maverik operates 364 sites in 12 states.
Just what makes a “fuel leader,” and how do you rank those operations?
OPIS uses a broad range of pricing and customer data (consumer and fleet) to rank each chain in a variety of categories but weights them differently based on conversations with industry insiders on what they felt were the most important metrics. Estimated monthly profit per site is rated the most important category, followed by total overall estimated profits. Other categories ranked include price differential, overall market share, local market share, margins, property values and more. The final overall ranking takes weighted ranking by category into consideration to determine the chains with the best performance.
This becomes apparent as the leaders are calculated in a range of categories. The 2020 Fuel Leaders report offers information for the top 50 companies on chain size, community price (above or below the local market), consumer traffic, fleet traffic and general head-to-head performance against competitors in their markets. The largest players at times were advantaged in the categories—fleet program performance, for example—yet in most areas operational success tended to be very individual in nature.
This is best illustrated when looking at the rankings compared to size. Circle K with nearly 6,000 sites ranks 20 on the list, while Buc-ee’s with 39 sites is ranked 15. Buc-ee’s is also one of the leading companies in the head-to-head competition category.
The 2020 Fuel Leaders report was distributed as a Fuels Market News supplement with the June issue of NACS Magazine. Highlights will also be presented in coming issues of Fuels Market News Magazine. However, you can access the full supplement with detailed information on the top 50 fuel leaders today, HERE.
