Gray, Gray & Gray releases 2022 propane industry survey results

Gray, Gray & Gray shares results from its annual propane survey for 2022.

Accounting and business advisory firm Gray, Gray & Gray released the results from its 2022 national propane survey. This is the firm’s sixth year for its survey of propane marketers.

This year’s survey collected data from propane marketers across the country for the heating season spanning April 2021 through March 2022.

Gray, Gray & Gray says its surveys serve as resources for statistics, trends and benchmarking data among retail propane distributors. Once again, Gray, Gray & Gray partnered with Angus Energy, an energy services firm, which provided statistics and data to supplement the survey responses.

“Propane dealers were facing pressure from multiple sources during the last heating season, but most saw their way to a successful year,” says Marty Kirshner, a partner at Gray, Gray & Gray who heads up its Energy Practice Group, in a news release. “Inflation, lingering pandemic restrictions, high material/steel costs, pricing uncertainty due to domestic and foreign political pressures, hiring problems and retention problems – it has been one thing on top of another over the past 12 months. But propane people persevere, they adapt, they manage. Their optimism and continued success comes through in our survey results.”

Some of the highlights from the results include:

• Hiring – 72 percent of respondents said finding qualified workers was “very difficult” (44 percent) or “nearly impossible” (28 percent).
• Retention – 60 percent said that retaining existing employees was “somewhat difficult,” while 14 percent found retention “very difficult.” They resorted to tactics such as wage increases (92 percent), bonuses (65 percent) and allowing more input into management decisions (19 percent) to help keep people on board.
• Industry involvement – 96 percent reported they were members of their regional or national trade association.
• Outlook – 84 percent report they are “highly confident” (32 percent) or “confident” (52 percent) in their company’s ability to remain a viable energy provider.
• Average margin for propane sales during the heating season just ended increased across the board, from residential and commercial propane to gallons sold for grills, pool heaters, autogas, agriculture, home use, generators and other uses.

See full results of Gray, Gray & Gray’s annual propane industry survey for 2022 – including information about margins, contracts, fees, asset management (tanks and fleet) and other benchmarking data – at gggllp.com/energy-survey-results-2022.

Gray, Gray & Gray was founded in 1945 and provides accounting, tax and business advisory services to companies in the energy industry. The Massachusetts-based company is a member of CPAmerica International, one of the largest associations of CPA firms in the world.

Read the survey results from 2021: Daunting year in propane forges renewed vision