Price Recovery Bolsters Brand Leaders

摘要

The multi-year lows for crude oil prices in the winter of2016 became a distant memory in 2017 as OPEC embarkedon a successful production-cutting program with the helpof some non-OPEC producers.Crude oil and gasoline prices last year came in at justunder $2.39/gal, an increase of some 26.5cts from 2016.Despite the price increases, the EIA recorded a small yearon-year decline in its gasoline demand renderings, whileOPIS demand figures pointed to a more significant 2% drop.The backdrop of higher prices allowed top brands tocommand better price premiums, big-box retailers toprice even more aggressively and large private-brandretailers to boost efficiency.