All Analysis articles – Page 31
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Analysis
Shop Talk with Tracy West
Happy New Year to you all let’s hope it’s a good one! It’s always difficult to predict the future but, at this time of year, industry people are falling over themselves to give it a go. Take Sainsbury’s, for instance, which has said shoppers are better than ever at finding ...
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Analysis
Positive momentum
The past year has been a busy one for the PRA, and its chairman Brian Madderson expects there will be no let up in 2014. Much of his time in 2013 was spent challenging and educating arms of government, such as the OFT, Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC), ...
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Analysis
Kevin Eastwood: BOSS executive director
How many times can a motorist fill up, claim to have left their method of payment behind, promise to pay within a week but then fail to do so? Once, possible, twice, doubtful, three times or more suggests treatment for Alzheimers or they’re behaving in a dishonest manner and should ...
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Analysis
James Lowman: chairman ACS
There is a growing consensus that radical change to the business rates system is required. We have been arguing for a long time that if the government wants to see businesses investing and creating jobs, then it has to take clear steps to reduce the costs that stand in its ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: 2014 - positive signs
And so another year begins, and apart from the rather bleak weather there’s definitely an increasingly positive feel coming from the industry as we head into 2014. Yes, it’s still very tricky and competitive out there, and it’s certainly no time to relax the strict disciplines and practices learned in ...
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Analysis
News Review of 2013
January A PRA report warns that supermarket expansion could wipe out 800 independent forecourts by 2017. Former PRA president Paul Sykes sells his five Shaws forecourts to Midlands Co-op. February A long-awaited OFT report into the road fuel market gives it a clean bill of health to the disbelief ...
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Analysis
Shop talk with Tracy West
It’s that most wonderful time of the year Christmas, of course. And, as an independent retailer, it’s your time to shine. Really play up to your strengths as an independent. You and your staff know a lot of your customers by name so, even though you’re busy, make sure you ...
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Analysis
Regeneration Forum: Sticking points
The problems with planning, business rates, excise duty and card payments were spelt out in no uncertain terms as key concerns of the fuel retailing sector at the recent Regeneration Forum hosted by the Petrol Retailers’ Association, and organised in conjunction with the Department of Energy and Climate Change. In ...
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Analysis
Duty deferment: A sense of duty
As you may now be aware, there is a scheme for retailers to buy oil under duty-deferred terms from suppliers’ terminals. Using the ’standard’ deferment scheme, the price of the oil is invoiced by the supplier but without the duty and VAT being charged to the retailer. Instead, the duty ...
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Analysis
David Charman - Chairman CWA
As we enter the money months of car washing, take time to reflect on what has happened within our industry over the past few years. The UK is a highly mechanised mature economy and yet a few years ago, with mass immigration, the wash industry entered a cycle, returning to ...
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Analysis
Brian Madderson - Chairman PRA
We all remember the ’panic buying’ in late March 2012 when there was the prospect of industrial action by Unite tanker drivers that could have interrupted fuel supplies to forecourts across the UK. This situation had been inflamed by ill-judged advice from a Cabinet Minister that encouraged motorists to stock ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Signs of a lively and prosperous 2014
We may be hurtling towards the end of the year, but there’s no sign yet of a quiet night in by the Christmas tree for the likes of Brian Madderson, and the industry’s new best friend Alan Powell, the tax expert who is described as having successfully challenged the government ...
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Analysis
Peter Harding - Retail technology consultant
Question. Where should the site manager/operator spend most of their time? Answer. In the shop, looking after customers and ensuring that stock levels are correct and that the store is well merchandised, promotions to the fore. This is one view of the retailing concept. Never before has ’retail is detail’ ...
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Analysis
UKPIA: Christ Hunt
As I write this column the focus of our attention has been on the uncertainty about the future of the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland. Fortunately this has been resolved, as the loss of Grangemouth would have posed significant consequences for fuel supply in Scotland. The agreement should open up ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Duty deferment - a game changer
The Regeneration Forum hosted by the PRA last month, was extremely illuminating and not just in terms of the information aired, particularly the presentation about duty deferment (of which more later). But it was also notable in showing what an uphill struggle organisations like the PRA have in getting government ...
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Analysis
BOSS: Payback time
BOSS, the British Oil Security Syndicate, has welcomed confirmation from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that it has issued new guidance to lawyers and police forces to prosecute motorists who repeatedly claim to have no-means-of-payment (NMoP). After lobbying from BOSS, the CPS has issued new legal guidelines to police and ...
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Analysis
Shop Talk with Tracy West
Sometimes it would be nice to know what the future holds. Whether the recession is well and truly behind us, for example, or even what the weather will actually do. In its 2013 Local Shops Report, the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) includes a section on the future. It projects ...
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Analysis
Time for feedback
A new study looking at the attitudes of fuel customers and why they choose particular brands, has underlined the growing dominance of the supermarkets. Customer intelligence specialist Market Force Information, surveyed more than 1,500 consumers across the UK in an effort to understand the choices made when purchasing fuel.The finding ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Leading by example
Firstly, many congratulations to all the finalists and winners at last month’s glittering awards ceremony (full report starts on page 45). Particular praise goes, of course, to this year’s Forecourt Trader of the Year winners, Zuber and Mohsin Issa of Euro Garages, who were too modest to come up on ...
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Analysis
Kevin Eastwood - BOSS executive director
Criminals who operate on UK forecourts come in all shapes and sizes, from individual drive-off offenders to organised gangs who steal fuel in bulk. At BOSS we recognise the need to match these shapes and sizes to have a strong deterrent effect or, failing that, to identify, apprehend and bring ...