caliburn

Its not difficult to estimate sales, investment size and profitability numbers of small businesses (gas stations, corner shops, SevenEleven etc.) in various parts of the US as tons of online info is available. However, I have not found any such information for the Australian market. Can anyone help?

ottg

What you are looking for is benchmarks and they are only for sale. They are only updated in 2005 and does not cover all states. For gas stations
Survey Results:

These are the results of a survey of service stations. These results should not be considered to be representative of all service stations in Australia. However, they will allow business owners to identify strengths and weaknesses in the ability of their business to generate revenue, control expenses and earn sufficient profits. This is done by identifying these elements of business performance and comparing them with benchmark performance levels currently being achieved by the sample of businesses in this survey.

Most of the service stations in our survey were from the eastern states of Australia. New South Wales was the most heavily represented area, while there were no firms located in Victoria or the Northern Territory in our sample.

Businesses from rural areas (population under 20,000) represented around 61% of the entire group. The remaining businesses were divided between larger regional cities and towns (population over 20,000) and metropolitan/provincial centres.

Approximately 78% of businesses rented their premises.

The following table will give you a snapshot of the variance in results found in your industry for various Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Each KPI (shown in rows) should be considered independently of each other. For example, a business with a high percentage gross profit would not normally also have a high relative percentage of their income spent on wages.

For each KPI, the table shows the average, high and low results found in the business surveyed. The KPIs should not be 'added together' under the high and low columns as they do not necessarily relate to the same business.

The KPIs show the 6 th highest and 6 th lowest actual result for each performance indicator. The range of values shown therefore covers the middle 80% of reported results.

Indicator Average Low High
Total Income (thousands) $2,124.1 $884.3 $3,541.5
Gross Profit 14.51% 10.02% 21.80%
Wages & Salaries (staff only, not owners) 4.07% 2.32% 6.33%
Rent of Premises# 1.54% 0.85% 2.02%
Net Profit (bos)* 4.63% 2.05% 8.09%
Stock Turnover Rate 42 19 54
Trading Hours per Week 99 67 168
Number of Hoses 10 5 16
Fuel Sales per Hose $174,016 $86,934 $295,273
Fuel Sales as a Percentage of Total Sales 74% 58% 95%


# calculation excludes those firms in freehold premises *(bos) before owners' salaries and benefits

So, how does your firm 'stack up' against these averages? These results will give you an idea of where your business falls in relation to the sample and give you a better understanding of your relative strengths and weaknesses.

The remaining expense items each represented less than 1% of total income on average; however some businesses reported some larger results for such items as:

Advertising and Promotion (including Franchise Fees), up to 1.50%
All Insurance, of up to 1.38%;
Interest, Bank Charges of up to 3.83%;
Other Occupancy Costs of up to 1.72%;
Other Depreciation, Lease and Hire Purchase of up to 2.52%;
Repairs and Maintenance, of up to 1.44%;
Staff On-Costs of up to 1.65%; and
Vehicle Operating Costs of up to 3.09%.
To summarise this, larger businesses had:

Higher profits per owner in spite of lower net profit margins;
Much higher personnel productivity per person and per dollar of wages paid;
A higher volume of sales per hose as well as more hoses;
Higher asset turnover, with less of those assets funded by owners;
A longer trading week.
The more profitable businesses:

Were larger;
Had lower non-salary overheads;
Achieved higher productivity per person and per dollar of wages paid;
Earned more fuel sales from each hose;
Appeared to have a apos;worseapos; stock management record.

caliburn

Thanks ottg, very useful info.