Peering over a beef jerky display, his back to a large cooler of bottled water, Brent Eubanks is hard at work. That work, unlike the other passer-throughs of this mid-sized American convenience store chain, isn’t choosing the best snack to satisfy a road trip hankering. He’s observing customer and employee experience and analyzing operations and challenges.
Brent is a Principal Consultant at capSpire, responsible for downstream petroleum markets and mergers and acquisitions. He’s focused on convenience stores, an industry he knows well, having run fuel operations, sourcing, and procurement at a large American chain for over a decade.
Brent is on a mission to find a better way for convenience stores.
“There’s a better way to be efficient, there’s a better way to operate. There’s a better way to bring in technology that can ease a lot of trouble spots,” explains Brent. Convenience stores are complex and most have more SKUs than a Costco, for example. “There are so many things going on. There’s a way to look at things from a real-world perspective,” he says.
capSpire provides global advisory services, delivery of new technologies and processes, and operational support for continuous improvement across energy and commodity industries. Having experts like Brent, with first-hand industry knowledge and experience, sets capSpire apart.
“It’s a very different feeling when the consultant telling you what to do has actually lived the problems you’re trying to solve,” explains Mike Strickland, a leader of capSpire’s North America advisory practice and a 10-year veteran of the company. “We’re helping clients solve problems related to people, process, and technology,” he says. Convenience stores are investing in optimization to increase margins, and having a partner who understands what optimization means for growing convenience stores is critical.
“You have refiners selling off their retail operations to regional players. You have regional chains merging,” explains Brent. “We have some clients that are very focused on fuel. We have some clients focused on fresh food. There’s a lot of innovation in these spaces. There are a lot of complex challenges from the sales side. It’s a very competitive space.”
This space is competitive, and there is also risk. “Making sure you get the right system to solve the right problem makes everything downstream a lot easier,” Mike says. Convenience stores are impacted by political, environmental, and social factors. While proper technology implementation innately adapts to these changes, “you need good people and processes in place to deal with unusual circumstances.”
For example, convenience stores must be prepared for natural disasters. “Hurricane plans are really important,” stresses Brent. “What happens if the refinery you always pull off of goes down? Where’s your next best alternative?” Working with an industry expert means the right questions get asked and answered. This is the critical intersection of people, process, and technology that capSpire is focused on. “We started to work with a lot of the major convenience stores because it was an underserved space,” says Mike. “We’ve developed the skills in this area. We work with or have deep familiarity with the major players in the industry.”
capSpire’s approach to helping convenience stores hit their goals is based on four iterative steps: planning a business strategy and technology roadmap, assessing system selections, implementation and change management, and optimization through digital analytics. But, most importantly, it’s choosing the right people to work with the convenience stores through these steps.
“Brent has done the deals, has sourced the fuel, has really lived the life of the potential clients that we want to be working with. He really understands everything related to getting fuel to a store and all of the nuances,” boasts Mike.
Click here to access our guide for convenience stores or reach out to Brent to learn how he can help your store reach its goals.
