All Analysis articles – Page 11
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AnalysisShop Talk: Good customer service is even more crucial now
I believe that customer service is one of the most important parts of retailing. Of course, availability and price are vital too, but customer service is the one thing that really leaves an impression on me.
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AnalysisMoney Talk: EG and BP news awash in Covid tsunami
It really, really would be great to be able to look at business and finance events other than the obvious one that’s dominated the year. Take for example the recent announcement that the founders and joint CEO’s of EG Group (the Issa brothers) have just bought Asda from Walmart.
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AnalysisService Centre: Jac Roper celebrates 25 years helping you out
Jac Roper on a rusty pump issue; password problems and cowboy rating firms
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AnalysisLegal advice: Changes in working practices and what the ‘new norm’ might look like
Our ‘legal doctor’ Robert Botkai discusses changes in working practices and what the ‘new norm’ might look like
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AnalysisPRA safety warning over EV charger plan
As pressure grows to ban sales of new internal combustion engine and hybrid cars by 2030, the PRA has injected a note of realism about EV chargers on forecourts.
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Analysis
Service Centre: Jac Roper on drive-offs, delivery problems; and crowdfunding success
We, the retailers, are stuck in the middle as police would not take any action and at the same time we cannot get anywhere with DVLA to obtain the car owners’ details. But there is a middle way which has proven very effective in the past.
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Analysis
Service Centre: Jac Roper talks to retailers about their recent trading experiences
Things are finally looking up… When I first spoke to Hassan Mohammed a month ago, at peak Covid-19 pandemic, he told me: “Things are hard at the moment because while fuel sales have taken a nosedive, shop sales have gone up between 30-50% at both sites (Limes Service Station in ...
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Analysis
Fuelling the front-line services
Petrol filling stations up and down the country have helped to keep the nation’s emergency services working during the coronavirus lockdown, despite facing some major challenges. Keeping sites open has been vital to provide the fuel for emergency service staff to get to work, and to maintain deliveries to hospitals, ...
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Analysis
Stephen Marcos Jones: director general, UKPIA
As nations have been forced into lockdown due to Covid-19, we have seen the mightiest of governments, central banks and corporate titans laid low by a virus approximately 0.125 microns in diameter something so small as to be dwarfed by a red blood cell. While the virus is invisible, the ...
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Analysis
Tracy West: retail commentator
New Kantar data shows that grocery sales were £524m higher in April 2020 than they were in April 2019, as British consumers adapted to life under lockdown. But the number of trips to supermarkets during that time hit a record low of 14 (compared to 17 when it’s business as ...
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AnalysisService Centre: Jac Roper relates readers’ Coronavirus lockdown experiences
Turned upside down by Covid-19 Tom Dant, managing director of Lincolnshire-based Gill Marsh Forecourts, sent in the observation that everybody is finding that times are strange. He says: "For us our best- performing site is now our worst- performing site, and our worst site is now the best!" Fuel sales ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
These strange and tragic times have sadly continued during a month that has seen oil prices fall to a negative position (see Argus Media column page 8) and the PRA’s chairman Brian Madderson face down "sickening" charges of profiteering levelled at fuel retailers (see News page 5). On the positive ...
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Analysis
Our ’Legal Doctor’ Robert Botkai reports on the ’new normal’
For those who don’t already know me, I am a partner at Winckworth Sherwood solicitors. I head up the Commercial Real Estate and Licensing Team. My own practice areas are acquisitions and disposals of commercial premises and alcohol licensing. I have a special interest in petrol stations having secured one ...
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Analysis
Ray Blake: PRA technical director
The Petrol Retailers Association and Car Wash Association teams are now ensconced in their own homes but continuing to represent and advise their members. Members can now access the ’Coronavirus’ section on our website, which is continuously updated to reflect the latest advice on the operation of all aspects of ...
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Analysis
Chris Judge: analysis editor, Argus Media
Chaotic oil markets continued through April culminating in US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) managing the unthinkable, dipping briefly into negative territory. Oil producers announced output cuts but failed to rebalance the supply/demand equation sufficiently to stem the losses in the market initiated by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. ...
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Analysis
Highs and lows of NPD
I love trying a new product so was particularly pleased with my latest haul although as with everything in life, some things were better than others. I have written quite a lot about protein bars so thought I had better start trying them. Then I spied two new bars: KitKat ...
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Analysis
Protection is on hand
In just one week, more than 1,000 forecourts globally have taken up Devon-based GripHero’s offer of providing free hand-protection dispensers to protect their customers from the transmission of coronavirus at the fuel pump.GripHero is a hand-protection dispenser which sits on top of each hand pump on the forecourt, so that ...
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Analysis
Essential services
Extraordinary times we’re living in, with the whole world adjusting to much-changed circumstances, and not much of a clue as to when things will return to anything that resembles ’normal’. For the forecourt sector it’s been a period of peaks and troughs as the panic-buying hordes loaded their cars with ...
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Analysis
Essential service in virus panic
Fuel retailers have been identified by the government as one of the keys to keeping emergency personnel mobile, and making the transportation of vital supplies possible, during the coronavirus lockdown. But while the fuel retailing industry has been working flat out to ensure it can operate safely for customers and ...
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Analysis
Kevin Eastwood: executive director, BOSS
We have found ourselves in unchartered territory and everyone involved in the forecourt sector has been reflecting on what the public health crisis has meant for ourselves, our families and our businesses. Our highest priority during the crisis is the health and safety of our colleagues, customers, suppliers and the ...