All Analysis articles – Page 16
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Analysis
Brian Madderson: PRA chairman
Many industry watchers thought that the very high values achieved by dealers (up to 12 x EBITDA) for their assets would soon start to wane. They had been exiting the market to sell to fast-growing groups backed by private equity funds where there was keen competition for rapid expansion. The ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
What an aggressive lot those ’gilet jaunes’ are, turning Paris into a war zone last month with the worst riots in decades. Protesters clashed with police, looting stores and torching shops and cars, creating absolute chaos on some of the most iconic streets in the city. The reason? Rising fuel ...
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Analysis
Chris Judge: analysis editor, Argus Media
International oil prices were in freefall in November, posting the steepest monthly decline in four years on oversupply and political turbulence rippling through two of the world’s largest producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia. These heavy losses were reflected reasonably faithfully on the retail gasoline market in the UK, but falls ...
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Analysis
Alexander Russell: consultant, Car Wash Association
The Parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has published its report on hand car washes (HCWs) in the UK following written submissions and hearings held in the summer from a number of stakeholder parties, including the Car Wash Association. What transpired from the committee’s investigations was that serious and highly polluting ...
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Analysis
The police have got it wrong
As police services across the UK have cut the number of frontline officers in response to funding pressures, chief constables and politicians have been looking for ways to ease the burden on the remaining crime fighters. One way that has been repeatedly suggested is downgrading the importance attached to forecourt ...
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Analysis
Stephen Marcos Jones: director general, UKPIA
As autumn begins to pinch, this is when we as a nation (or the high street retailers at least) begin counting down to Christmas. Santa’s delivery supply chain while impressive only covers one day of the year whereas we’ll have to keep fuel flowing over the whole Christmas period and ...
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Analysis
Tracy West: retail commentator
I was lucky enough to have the chance to visit the Forecourt Trader of the Year 2018 recently A26 Tannaghmore in Northern Ireland. And what a pleasure that visit was. It was easy to see how it wowed the judges. The star of this particular site is undoubtedly the food-to-go. ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
Very interesting forum last month on ’The next steps for low-emission vehicles...’ (see Industry Insight p23). Apart from the fact that the move to electric vehicles and the necessary infrastructure required to service them, all sounded like one huge, challenging mess despite the enthusiasm of some of the presenters there ...
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Analysis
Ray Blake: PRA technical director
The unmanned operation of petrol filling stations is growing across the UK, sometimes because it is the only feasible way for vehicle fuel to be accessible in remote areas. But also where companies have evaluated the cost of installing and monitoring technical solutions against the ever-rising cost of employing personnel ...
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Analysis
Chris Judge: analysis editor, Argus Media
International oil prices shed more than 10% in October. Markets fell from the highs seen in September, as Saudi Arabia increased production and assured customers that it would plug any gaps caused by loss of Iranian oil to sanctions. UK transport fuel prices were broadly neutral, but Ice Brent futures ...
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Analysis
Turning the tide
The sell-offs of large tranches of their forecourt estates by some of the biggest oil companies has changed the structure of the UK market for most of this century. No one would argue that MRH, MFG, Euro Garages and Rontec would not have been the dominant groups in the Top ...
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Analysis
Tracy West: retail commentator
Not sure if you noticed it, but last month Cadbury launched a new chocolate bar. No worries if you didn’t because it’s initially available exclusively in Tesco’s. It’s called Cadbury Dark Milk and it’s a dark version of Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM). Dark Milk has a much higher cocoa content ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
Well what a shocker! The Jet brand is returning to the company owned sector. Brand owner Phillips 66 has bought independent dealer Nick Baker’s award-winning business in Yorkshire. While it’s only four sites, Mary Wolf, the company’s managing director, UK marketing, said the acquisition was the start of a new ...
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Analysis
Kevin Eastwood: executive director, BOSS
On more than one occasion during the past three months, BOSS has been told by senior police officers that they are keen to have much closer links with forecourt retailers as there are often clear links to more serious incidents. Forecourt crime tends to involve a high number of incidents ...
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Analysis
Charlotte Blum: analysis editor, Argus Media
Oil prices continue on their upward trajectory, and there are signs of tightness in global markets, felt all the way down the supply chain to the UK pump. Brent crude prices topped $82/bl in late September, closing the month at $82.72/bl, $5.30/bl up on the month. Prices at UK retail ...
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Analysis
James Lowman: chief executive, ACS
It’s hard to ignore the debate on plastics and the environmental impact of the bottles and bags that are too often discarded into the countryside, waterways and oceans. One of my rules in working out how ACS should address policy challenges is to ask ’Is this a real issue, are ...
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Analysis
Deals that dominate the market
After its predecessor, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), gave the road fuels market a clean bill of health in early 2013, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) has ignored calls for a fresh inquiry and left the sector well alone. But two major deals mean it is now assessing ...
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Analysis
Tracy West: retail commentator
So the mighty Coca-Cola has gobbled up Costa Coffee in a £3.9bn deal. Wow. News reports say it’s a win-win good news for Costa as the brand can expand further globally and good for Coke as it takes them into hot beverages. For what it’s worth, I am personally rather ...
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Analysis
Brian Madderson: PRA chairman
If the Road to Zero plan finally published by the Department for Transport (DfT), the Clean Air Strategy published by the Department for Food, Rural Affairs and Environment (DEFRA) together with the demonisation of diesel were not sufficient worries for the UK fuels retailing industry, the proposed £12bn merger of ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
The skies above the fuel retailing sector are busy with activity as the powers that be set about making decisions that will influence the structure of the industry well into the future. How much of it amounts to dark thunder clouds on the horizon, and how much potential rays of ...