SUSIE HAWKINS, managing partner of West Country forecourt chain Simon Smith Group, (a Lakeside group member) was named winner of the Global Scholarship Competition at the NACS show in Las Vegas last month. The winners – one retailer and one supplier – from each of the national competitions held in the UK, Australia and the USA, went head to head in front of the international audience. Susie impressed the judges with her presentation on the incursion of the UK multiple retailers into the small store sector, and her description of how the Simon Smith Group is fighting back.

FORECOURT RETAILERS PHIL AND LESLEY TOUT, who run a Budgens-branded shop in Langford, Somerset, have claimed the second Budgens company-owned supermarket for independent operation – a 6,000sq ft store in Cheddar. Budgens franchisee Jonathan James, who runs three forecourts in Cambridgeshire, was the first last year in Soham.

FUEL CARD OPERATOR CH JONES’S network of sites has reached the 1,000 mark, building on its position as the largest multi-branded network in the UK. The 1,000th site in Preston, Lancashire is owned by Petrol Express, which operates 54 forecourts, 19 of which are now part of the CH Jones network.

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