Business Spotlight: From Crane to Conoco

Since opening the first Rapid Robert’s convenience store in small-town Crane 27 years ago, owners Rob and Sherry Wilson have managed to maintain a feeling of family ownership within their business.

Last summer, each of the Wilsons’ four children was working for the company. Son Todd Wilson is the full-time director of marketing, while school-age children Amy, Travis and Taylor worked during their breaks doing bookkeeping, maintenance and general cleaning.

At the rate the company is growing, it’s likely that there always will be something for the Wilson children to do within Rapid Robert’s Inc. should they choose.

Todd Wilson takes pride in working for the company.

“It gives you a sense of purpose and makes you want to grow it,” he says.

The Wilsons employ 145 across 23 ConocoPhillips-branded southwest Missouri and Arkansas gas stations and convenience stores with 2009 sales of $79.5 million.

Strange science
While gasoline is the common product at all Rapid Robert’s locations, it’s not what brings in the most profit.

“You’d think if you were selling something for $2.69 a gallon, you should be making money on it. I term it a necessary evil,” President and CEO Rob Wilson says of his fuel sales.

Wilson says because so many businesses are involved in gasoline distribution, shipping and sales, it’s the least profitable product. ConocoPhillips ships the gasoline from Bartlesville, Okla., to Mount Vernon.

“We go to Mount Vernon, to their terminal. The trucks go to whatever location they’re filling,” Todd Wilson says, noting that Rapid Robert’s uses its own trucks to deliver the fuel.

The top-selling in-store products vary by location, Rob Wilson says. Stores near elementary schools are likely to sell more candy and soda, while stores near college campuses sell more energy drinks and beer.

With so many product options to fill up a convenience store, Vice President Sherry Wilson says it’s challenging to pick the winners – outside of cooler items such as water, soda and energy drinks.

“It’s a tough choice for us to decide what gets to come into the store, but what gets to stay is based on sales alone,” she adds. “We call it basically having to pay for its space.”

As with most businesses, Rapid Robert’s hasn’t been recession-proof. Last year’s revenues were within a few million dollars of 2005 levels. However, officials project 2010 revenues of $80 million to $100 million, depending on fuel prices.

Technology and No. 24
The technology used in the stores is the biggest operational change the Wilsons have seen.

Rob Wilson recalls running the first store’s single cash register that had only three sales categories: gas, food and other. Now, he says, instead of registers, the stores use terminals with seven categories broken into 30 departments. He also remembers the 1990s, when telephone lines were used for electronic transactions and the more recent move to satellites in processing credit cards, pay-at-the-pump services and lottery-ticket sales.

In a 2006 National Association of Convenience Stores survey, 79 percent of convenience stores had price scanning versus less than one in 20 with scanning in 1994. Also, 62 percent of convenience store companies have Web sites, the survey said.

“It’s not a matter of just operating a gas station anymore,” Sherry Wilson adds.

The Wilsons don’t intend to stop at 23 stores, which span the Ozarks, south to Eureka Springs, Ark., and north to Osage Beach. Six are in Springfield, with a seventh soon to join the roster.

“We’re just getting ready to break ground within 30 days at Kansas and Sunshine,” Rob Wilson says.[[In-content Ad]]