Site numbers fall

The Energy Institute’s latest Retail Marketing Survey reveals that the number of forecourts in the UK continued to decline over the past year, falling to under 9,000 sites for the first time.

According to the report, there were 8,892 operational filling stations in the UK at end of December 2010. Petrol sales totalled 15.01m tonnes by year-end a fall of 212,000 tonnes on year earlier levels. And diesel sales totalled 13.06m tonnes rising by 403,000 tonnes over the past year.

Total cuts carbon

Total UK has completed an energy reduction scheme across 245 of its company-owned sites, helping to reduce its annual carbon footprint by more than 1,200 tonnes. The project, led by energy management experts Evolve Energy, saw a range of building management systems installed to regulate the amount of power supplied to equipment such as heating, air conditioning, refrigerators and forecourt lighting.

E10 concerns

Germany’s Ministry of Economy is continuing with the introduction of E10 despite a backlash from drivers. The Ministry has held an emergency petrol summit to discuss problems surrounding the sale of E10, which went on sale in February but many drivers have been avoiding it because they fear it might damage their cars. There have also been press reports that some forecourts are running low on standard fuels because they have switched some of their forecourt reserves to E10.

BP appoints Randle

BP has named Catherine Randle as the new manager of its company and franchise retail estate in the UK, replacing Richard Harding.

Randle will take over the post, running around 350 BP branded stores, this month.