Albuquerque Acquisition Paying Off for Alon
DALLAS — Alon USA Energy Inc.'s retail arm is seeing positive results following the August acquisition of 14 convenience stores in the Albuquerque, N.M., area and the opening of a new large-format store in El Paso, Texas, President and CEO Paul Eisman shared Tuesday during the company's 2015 fiscal third-quarter earnings call.
The company saw a net profit of $41.9 million during the quarter, compared to $38.5 million in the third quarter of 2014.
"We are pleased with the strong third-quarter results across most of our businesses," Eisman said. "Our refining segment capitalized on a robust crack spread environment during the third quarter to generate solid margins. Our retail business continued to perform well, and we are encouraged by the strong results from our asphalt segment and the return to profitability in this business."
Alon, the largest U.S. 7-Eleven licensee and operator of 308 c-stores in Texas and New Mexico, saw continued retail sales growth alongside its store count growth during Q3 2015. Among the highlights:
- Net operating income for the quarter was $7.4 million, an increase from $6.9 million during the same quarter one year ago.
- Retail fuel sales grew from 48.567 million gallons to 51.386 million gallons year over year.
- Retail fuel margins increased from 20.8 cents per gallon to 21.7 cents per gallon.
- In-store merchandise sales increased from $84.8 million to $86.6 million during the quarter.
- Merchandise margins remained relatively steady at 31.4 percent.
On a per-site basis, merchandise sales remained the same at $96,000 per store per month, while retail fuel sales increased by 1,000 gallons per month to 59,000 gallons per month.
"Generally, we had very good results in most of our markets," Eisman said.
Delek US Holdings Inc., which also has a convenience store division, owns 48 percent of the shares of Alon USA Energy Inc.