== Limited company annual accounts - steeper late filing penalties ==

It would have been nice to end the current series of Industry Database figures by being able to point to some indicators that our industry had started to bounce off the bottom of the economic dip. But unfortunately our figures are from last November and if you cast your mind back to then, you might recall that it was around that time that pump prices were falling almost weekly. This led some operators to predict that the dramatic fall in fuel volumes experienced over the previous summer might at least be stemmed, or possibly even reversed. Unfortunately, our own volume figures continued to show a steep decline (36% down between November '07 and November '08) and since then we've started to see pump prices slowly rise again as the pound has tumbled against the US dollar.

All of those desperate economic rescue initiatives from November onwards - you remember - slashing base rate by several percentage points, pumping billions into the retail environment through the VAT rate cut, industry after industry pleading for bail out. And that was before Woolies went to the wall. We might have guessed that the government had seen some then-unpublished economic figures and realised that they were staring into the abyss. Then in December we saw our own Database figures from October's trading results, and realised just how dramatically things seemed to have crashed.

It was good (as always) to read November's Mo'gas column where he quite rightly pointed out that the typical petrol retailer isn't competing with the likes of M&S or Waitrose. And that's because, in effect, the customers using petrol stations do so because they have to - and that therefore this industry shouldn't suffer quite as much as some others during this economic winter. It would be even better if we could follow that up with some heartening figures to provide some relief in this season of good cheer. Unfortunately we can't. Database is producing the worst figures in many years and there's no sign of improvement.

if an alien landed here in a spaceship and tuned into almost any TV or radio programme, he could be forgiven for believing that the earth's financial systems had gone into an absolutely unprecedented meltdown.

Every autumn for the past 10 years we have taken a snapshot of actual forecourt pay from our managed payroll service data. We then analyse that data into geographic regions to see just what is being paid to hourly-paid employees in the UK petrol retailing industry. What makes these figures almost unique is that they're not based on what people claim to pay but on what has been put through their 'live' payrolls. This is done for almost 2,500 employees across the UK, during one week in September. Remember though that what we're showing are average rates per employer, so naturally there may be many individual employees within any given site or company who earn more or less than these figures. We restrict the data to hourly-paid employees in order to help prevent distortion by monthly salaries of management or directors.

Funny how after a few days of news about slightly falling oil prices, people begin to think that we're past the worst. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that in the so-called 'silly season' when there aren't a lot of news stories around, the daily rags have been full of 'fuel price war' stories. And that's because one or two of the supermarket giants have loudly announced a few pence off their previous (record) prices, or even gone back to very blatant cross-subsidy tactics of the 'spend £50 in our shop and get 5ppl off our petrol' variety. So, back to 'business as usual' then?

Despite operating as limited companies, many smaller independent dealers have escaped the need to have their annual accounts subjected to formal statutory or Companies Act audit scrutiny and reporting over the past few years. They've been able to take refuge under what appeared to be the quite generous Audit Exemption Threshold for small companies. This meant that if their turnover was below £5.6m in the year to March 2008, and they employed no more than 50 staff, they could forget about a formal audit. Indeed, the exemption threshold was raised in the last Budget to £6.5m for financial years beginning on or after April 6, 2008, and no doubt a few smaller dealers breathed a sigh of relief and thought that they could ignore the issue for another year. Maybe some of them still can. No doubt there will also be a few readers who've only been in this dealer business for a couple of years, having perhaps spent a long time in the forecourt trade as site managers or commission operators, and having set up as limited companies, haven't actually needed an audit in the time they've been working for themselves.

There's a sense of panic on many forecourts these days with customers fuming at prices, blaming the retailer, but then queuing up if your prices stay a penny or two cheaper than the ones down the road for a few hours. Then there are tanker drivers threatening to cut off supplies and pumps covered as sites run out of fuel. There are epidemic quantities of drive-offs. A fortune in cash to count and bank every day. It's no surprise then that many operators say they feel totally stressed out trying to run their businesses 'as normal' in times that feel very far from 'normal'. The worst part of it is that there's no end in sight - welcome to the new reality of petroleum retailing.

It has been a recurring theme of this column to look at steadily rising pump prices and point out the negative effect on retailers; in particular to highlight the effect of the 'retailer merchandising agreements' which have delivered a constant 'heads I win, tails you lose' bonus to the credit card companies. To restate the problem: the basic fuel margin (ie the difference between pump price (excl VAT and the invoiced price from the oil company) is calculated in terms of pence per litre and is effectively 'fixed' in the short term by most industry-standard supply agreements, regardless of pump prices. In contrast, virtually every traditional credit card agreement specifies that the 'commission' paid by the retailer to the card processor/acquirer is calculated as a percentage of the pump price. So while the retailer may still earn 3ppl whether the pump price is £1/litre or £1.30/litre, the card companies will see their income rise from (say) 1.75ppl to 2.275ppl.

The current series of Database figures started with data from January 1996, although we had been regularly presenting statistics and accounting information in these pages for many years prior to that. Twelve years is a long time in any industry, let alone one that changes as frequently as petrol retailing, and we are reaching a point where this particular series is coming to a natural close.

There is a common tendency when business people of any ilk get together to stress their devotion to the big ideas - their marketing skills, their people skills, and their cleverness in spotting the next big opportunity and having the courage to take a gamble on it. That's the essence of capitalism and it has been the driver of economic success for centuries.

By its very name, this column has traditionally been based on statistics. However this month marks something of a change. It's a basic fact of EKW's business that we speak with large numbers of petrol retailers each month and sometimes the feedback that we collect from them, spread across the whole country, becomes so consistent that it almost takes physical form. One such manifestation has been quite obvious over the past couple of months, but it is almost impossible for us to quantify in our preferred way with any degree of accuracy: theft.

We've raised the subject of rising credit card costs on forecourts so often that it's almost embarrassing to do so again. Unfortunately with the almost weekly increase in pump prices the issue becomes ever more pressing. So the question is: can the retail petroleum industry still afford to sell its main product under the existing rules of the credit card game?

January's always a bit of a grim month and this year's could be grimmer as that 'credit crunch' we've all been hearing about since last summer is about to hit - hard and soon. For most of us (at least those among us who don't have an account with Northern Rock), the constant mentions in the news about the problems of huge multinational banking conglomerates may have seemed totally unconnected with the real world, where trade has largely continued as normal.

Most people have been dreading it for a long time, but we've now broken through the £1-per-litre barrier at the pumps and this time it's probably for keeps. Sure, as this is being written, some sites are still selling unleaded at 99.9ppl, but it's unlikely that they'll be able to keep that up for much longer.

It seems a long time ago, but do you remember when the first pay-as-you-go mobile phone cards began to appear on forecourts?

Our annual look at what this industry is paying its hourly-paid staff reveals that overall forecourt pay rates have increased by 6.1% in the year to September 2007. The UK national average now stands at £5.59 per hour compared to £5.27 last year. However, behind the average the picture is rather more mixed than usual.

A subject that affects a great many retailers - albeit that they may not realise they are affected - is money laundering. Used in its broadest sense, the term is now taken to refer to any criminal financial activity that crosses over into apparently legitimate business activity. This means that it ranges from using a retail business to recycle 'dirty money' into the commercial banking sector, through to the purchase and sale of stolen goods themselves, to handling the proceeds of theft, fraud or tax evasion.

Last month we observed that on the usual indicators of shop efficiency, the forecourt shop had seemingly come of age and was a paragon of success. Surely even the most hard-bitten and cynical petrol retailers had something to smile about? The response from some readers and clients was slightly more sanguine. "Yes," they said. "We're all working twice as hard as 10 years ago - but for the same money."

In last month's forecourt Trader we noted a surge in fuel sales based on the Database figures for March - possibly as a result of the fall-out from the supermarket fuel fiasco in February. We did wonder whether this was a temporary blip or the start of a trend. Well, looking at the latest figures from April, it would seem that all of those motorists who had supposedly forsaken 'cheap' fuel for 'quality' have been unable to kick their addiction to supermarkets. In short, April's fuel volumes were right back to normal.

The Database figures from March have produced some quite extraordinary results. Take the fuel volume for instance - close to 453,000ltrs, or almost 10% up on the previous year.

Virtually every business - and that includes petrol retailers - claims back the VAT on the petrol/diesel that it buys for its own consumption. Naturally HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has always assumed that at least some of that fuel is actually used for 'private' mileage.

The usual form of this column, every April for the past 10 years, has been to peer behind the 'smoke and mirrors' of Chancellor Brown's annual Budget speeches and prise out some of the nuggets. Well this time it seems pointless as we'll have several years to analyse this budget. You see, this year the Chancellor has really gone into the futurology business. He hasn't simply delayed a few measures (such as the 'fuel duty escalator') until later this year; he's actually laid down a series of fiscal measures which are intended to take effect at various times between now and 2010.

Annual shop sales were worth more than £641,000 in 2006, which represents an increase of 2.8% over the previous year in 'raw' cash terms. If we look at the RPI measure of price inflation during the year, we find that it averaged 3.2% and was rising quite significantly towards the end of the year.

Although we've written frequently about the problems encountered when someone suddenly moves from operating one or two sites to a multi-site operation, we make no apology for returning to the issue. This is because some of these operators are about to hit their first accounting year-end.

It was quite surprising to see 'franchising' suddenly feature so prominently in last month's Forecourt Trader - and rather timely too. EKW Group has been involved in franchising for some 20 years, and it's one of the few accounting practices officially affiliated to the Britsh Franchise Association (BFA). In fact at several recent meetings one question that's been repeatedly raised is "why hasn't the UK petrol industry gone down the franchise route?". Well there are several answers, but first some background.

Accounting can sometimes be a funny old game - quite often it's funny when the accounting system produces negative figures. Some of these are pretty obvious, and actually most of them aren't funny at all.

Economists tell us that we live in the age of the brand. A litre of cola isn't worth much as a commodity, but stick the right corporate logo on the bottle and watch it suddenly become liquid gold. The global companies who own the right labels to go on that bottle are worth a fortune - far more than the value of the product they have in stock, or the physical plant and equipment they use to produce and distribute it. Likewise a litre of petrol is pretty much just another litre of petrol, but the major oil companies have always tried to project (and protect) their own brand as unique, or at least different, and have jealously guarded their corporate name and logo.

Our annual look at what this industry is paying its hourly-paid staff reveals that overall forecourt pay rates have increased by 2.6% in the year to September 2006. The UK national average now stands at £5.27 an hour, compared to £5.14 last year.

one of the very stirking features of many sites at the moment appears to be just how empty some of the shops are - not of customers, necessarily, but of stock.

It seems that hardly a day goes by without another move by the major oil companies to leave behind their traditional role of forecourt retailing, with or without divesting themselves of some real estate at the same time. While in some quarters this is seen as an extremely good thing, and creates opportunities for enterprising retailers to expand their operations, as accountants and business advisors we sometimes have to play 'party pooper' and remind potential operators of a few of the harsh realities and risks involved in sudden changes to their business. So here, in no particular order, are a few things to consider when that 'once in a lifetime offer' arrives in the post.

A growing number of forecourt retailers are finding that retailing isn't actually now expected to be their main role at all. In days gone by they were told by the oil companies that their main function was 'front of house' but today they are often finding themselves expected to do another job altogether - namely the paperwork and administration for five or six sites, and some DIY accounting in their 'lunch break'.