All Analysis articles – Page 33
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Analysis
Question time with Caroline Hobson
Q Last month was the deadline for submissions to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for its short inquiry into the petrol retailing sector. What happens now? A The OFT will now go away and review the submissions it has received, seek further information from industry players and consider ...
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Analysis
Pricing law threat
The UK is not alone in suffering the effects of predatory pricing, where the biggest players in any market can use their huge financial muscle to decimate the livelihoods of the smaller ones and apparently get away with it. But while in the UK fuel-retailing sector the powers that ...
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Analysis
Your industry needs you
Retailers have until October 18 to respond to an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) questionnaire as part of its assessment of the UK petrol and diesel fuel sector to identify whether or not there are competition problems it can tackle.The Petrol Retailers’ Association (PRA) has been chasing for a full ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Pricing deterrent
Having recently driven from the top to the bottom of France and back again, one of the main things I can vouch for apart from the beautiful weather! is the relatively low price of fuel. How nice it was to be speeding along miles and miles of empty autoroutes, ...
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Analysis
Rude awakening
A new campaign from the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) and the Petrol Retailers’ Association (PRA) is giving motorists a much-needed wake-up call as it highlights the burden of excessive fuel taxes in a bid to raise pressure on the Treasury to cut fuel duty.More than 5,000 signs that show motorists exactly ...
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Analysis
Must try harder
Arather gloomy picture of how forecourt shoppers view the nation’s forecourts has been revealed in the latest Forecourt Report by leading sector wholesaler Palmer and Harvey. With a focus on ’understanding today and preparing for tomorrow’, the over-riding picture revealed in the report is "not an especially positive one", according ...
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Analysis
Supermarket sweep
More than two thirds of UK motorists are more likely to refuel their cars at a supermarket petrol station than any other forecourt, according to new research by customer intelligence company Market Force.The poll of 9,000 UK motorists last month revealed that 68.2% of customers most frequently fill up their ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Welcome relief
So lobbying does work or government U-turns on tax are right on trend at the moment! But the fact there will no longer be a fuel duty tax rise in August is a great relief to the industry and motorists alike. Plaudits must go to everyone involved in the campaign ...
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Analysis
Daggers at dawn
The sparks flew last month as Justine Greening, MP, via an interview in The Sun newspaper, warned oil companies and fuel retailers, to ’pass on price cuts’ or face government action. The newspaper report said Transport Secretary Justine Greening had ordered officials to draw up a code of conduct in ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Happy birthday to us!
Welcome to our silver anniversary issue. Yes, unbelievably Forecourt Trader is 25 years old, and in celebration the team has pulled the stops out to create this bumper issue. There have been many imitators of Forecourt Trader such as Service Station, Forecourt Retailer and Forecourt News. But no magazine ...
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Analysis
How it all began
It was a time when petrol cost £1.70 a gallon or 38 pence a litre and Maggie Thatcher was re-elected making her the longest-serving Prime Minister since the early 19th century. Forecourt Trader was officially launched in April 1987, following its humble beginnings as a supplement within another title Car ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: OFT brush-off
It wasn’t quite the response he was looking for, but at least the Office of Fair Trading didn’t completely slam the door in Brian Madderson’s face when considering whether to conduct a market study into road fuel retailing (see News Extra). Brian and his team at the RMI have ...
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Analysis
Back to the grindstone
It’s back to the grindstone for RMI chairman Brian Madderson as the Office of Fair Trading provisionally rejected the call for a market study into road fuel retailing. The only encouraging part of the response was that it was ’provisional’. This gives Brian and others another six weeks to find ...
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Analysis
Panic stations
Chaos took hold on Britain’s forecourts last month as motorists followed confusing advice issued by government ministers to keep their tanks topped up, with one even suggesting using jerry cans.The warnings were issued in the wake of the Unite union announcing its tanker driver members had voted for strike action. ...
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Analysis
Over to you, OFT
The momentum had been gathering for some time. And at the appropriate moment RMI Petrol made its submission to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for an inquiry into the UK fuels market. It must respond within 30 days.The OFT submission followed a month in which supplies were disrupted through ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Pricing woes
It was the perfect moment to make a submission to the Office of Fair Trading for an investigation into the UK fuels market. Diesel prices have hit record levels, crude prices are on their way up, refineries are faltering and putting pressure on supply; and independent fuel retailers are struggling ...
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Analysis
Flexible friend
W hen the big trees fall, new ones grow back in their place. In the road transport fuel sector, Greenergy has become part of the new growth, supplying the needs of the market as the traditional operators fall away.Founded as a niche manufacturer of green fuels in 1992, it has ...
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Analysis
What’s in store?
This coming year will see the growing trend towards market consolidation, according to Adam Wadlow, partner at property specialist BarberWadlow."Last year’s Rontec deal with Total was possibly the start of a general pattern," he said. "The sale of Motor Fuel Group was another case in point. In order to survive ...
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Analysis
Duty bound
MPs voted unanimously last month to pass a motion demanding that the government puts the two fuel duty rises planned for next year on the back burner. The House of Commons backbench debate united all political parties with MPs calling on the government to consider the feasibility of a ...
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Analysis
Welcome pledge
DCC Energy has moved swiftly to reassure Total dealers about its commitment to their businesses, and a seamless transition once the acquisition from Rontec is completed.The initial, rather negative, reaction by Total dealers to the news that their contracts would be moving from Rontec to DCC, announced last month, was ...