This article is brought to you by ADD Systems.
By Levi Jiorle, ADD Systems
Convenience store retailers strive to streamline their operations to be efficient and accurate as possible. Between shift reporting, pricing, inventory management and other considerations, c-stores have many moving parts that need to be controlled to create optimal profit.
Sandri Energy, a diversified energy and c-store company founded in 1930, sought to find software that not only manages its margins but helps it find ways to improve its business through modern tools. After a software implementation, Sandri met these goals, and the company’s leaders found themselves with an unexpected level of control over their operation.
“Within the first nine to twelve months, we had really seen a significant increase in margin management,” Erika Young, vice president of motor fuels and store operations at Sandri Energy, said. “Because we were able to manage all the pricing and retails, there’s been a lot of benefits to our convenience store managers.”
Young further explained the benefits of modern software. Many manual tasks that were previously done by store managers are now handled through automation. This gives store managers more time to focus on other tasks. And because the software allows store managers to spend less time in the back office, they can now focus more time on the floor, creating an excellent customer experience. “It’s allowed them to take ownership,” Young shared.
Sandri also found that in-store scanning has benefited the company in many ways. Before implementation, there was difficulty in accounting for all store items. Some direct store delivery (DSD) items, in particular, were hard to trace. By scanning every item that goes through the store, inventory is accurate and vendor substitutions are controlled. Accurate inventory also led to reducing Sandri’s shrink.
While Sandri sought to help the company’s managers be more efficient and front-facing, it also wanted to improve its back-office operations. The software implementation “enabled them to work much more productively and efficiently,” Young said. Because of automation, back-office personnel achieved more efficiency with shift reporting.
And with analytics, Sandri’s leaders were pleased with the control they gained over the operation. They found improvements in their overall decision-making.
“The analytics that are available to us have allowed us to negotiate contracts much differently than we previously have done,” Young said. “It’s given us the privilege of negotiating better contracts and making better decisions. It’s also allowed us to offer promotional deals that we never had before because of scan data. And it has allowed us to reduce shrink and spoilage because we now know what items are fast-moving and what items are slower sellers.”
One of the most exciting improvements is the daily reporting. Young explained, “We receive alerts, notifications and reporting that allows us to respond quickly to issues we may have.”
Some of the automated reports Sandri has set help it stay within its margins. Any exceptions are directly reported, and the front office is able to adjust efficiently. Cigarette counts and invoice variances are delivered, which improves the company’s pricebook and shrink management. On the motor fuel side, Sandri takes advantage of monthly EPA and daily margin reports, saving a tremendous amount of time. The business intelligence reporting put a light on previously undiscovered problems, allowing Sandri to correct them, reduce expenses and, ultimately, increase profitability.
Sandri’s story is promising for convenience store retailers. Whether a business was founded in 1930 or has just begun, adaptability to the market is important, and great software makes that easier. Sandri's software helped it to not only improve processes, but also enable and empower its team to be successful.
“Great software gives you so much control and management that you didn’t even know you wanted or needed at the c-store level,” Young said. “It gives us everything we need on a day-to-day basis, but the potential to constantly adapt and change for our needs has been an incredible tool for this company.”
To learn more about how software can improve your operation, visit addsys.com.
This is the second in a two-part series from ADD Systems. Read the first article here.