Fast growing US fuel retailer reaches manual pricing breaking point

The background:

A private-equity–backed fuel and convenience retailer expanded rapidly from 5 locations to nearly 50 in just a few years. For a long time, the founder personally handled pricing,  sending daily instructions to store managers via email or text. As he put it, “It worked at 10 sites, but by the time we were heading toward 50, it was completely unsustainable.”

Speed was inconsistent, competitive checks were ad-hoc, and no one could easily confirm whether prices had actually been implemented. The founder struggled to manage M&A alongside daily pricing activities. Leadership recognized that continued acquisition would only magnify the gaps. As another executive described it,

“We could see the hole we were about to dig.”

With aggressive growth planned and a no designated pricing team, they needed proper infrastructure, visibility, accuracy, and a repeatable process that didn’t depend on one person’s bandwidth.

The solution:

The business implemented Kalibrate Fuel Pricing. The centralized pricing platform was brought in to stabilize operations while enabling scalable growth. They replaced email-and-text coordination with structured workflows, automated audit trails, and real-time visibility across all sites. This alone freed leadership from daily price-setting and allowed the company to hire and train pricing analysts.

As the operation grew from around 50 locations toward 200, usage matured significantly. Pricing analysts began leveraging competitive intelligence, margin analysis, and zone strategies that had never been possible under manual methods. One analyst noted,

“For the first time, we could explain every pricing decision, not just react.”

Having reached 250 stores, their contract renewal triggered a comprehensive RFP.
They evaluated four fuel pricing software vendors and ran comprehensive pilots with two.

Despite exploring alternatives, the business recommitted to Kalibrate. While the other vendors offered strong data feeds, or slicker UI,  none could match the combination of accuracy, trust, and responsiveness that Kalibrate offered.

“What mattered most to us is speed and accuracy of competitive pricing. We just couldn’t trust the data we were seeing in the other platforms.”

With plans to reach 500 stores, they chose the partner that had proven it could grow with them from basic execution to strategic optimization.

The result:

Within the first month, the company saw measurable margin uplift. Significant enough that board stakeholders immediately supported continued investment.

The founder fully stepped away from daily pricing. Three analysts were trained to expert level. Over 15 multi-site acquisitions were integrated without disruption.

Most importantly, the business now operates with confidence that pricing infrastructure can scale well beyond 250 sites. As one executive summarized:

“There were a lot of factors involved in our decision, but ultimately the question was who would help us make more money as we grow.”