All Analysis articles – Page 8
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
Quite an eye-opener at last month’s APEA meeting (see News Extra, page 10). Not normally my type of gig, since it’s all very detailed legal and technical stuff relating to the Petroleum Explosives Acts and associated environment legislation. It was all about the fourth edition of the ...
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Analysis
Charlotte Blum Analysis editor
Geopolitical moves by the US have dominated oil prices, with sanctions on oil producers driving them up further. But Opec is signalling it could increase output, and the danger of a global trade war has just bubbled up again as a threat to demand. UK retail prices in late May ...
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Analysis
Alexander Russell: consultant, Car Wash Association (CWA)
The Car Wash Association, in conjunction with the Petrol Retailers Association, is continuing to work towards achieving a much greater level of compliance among unregulated hand car washes (HCWs) with employment law, fiscal law, Health Safety regulations and, most recently, in dealing with the environmental hazards of trade ...
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Analysis
Turning the tide
With the National Crime Agency investigating links with organised crime and drug smuggling, and raids almost on a daily basis looking for slaves among their work forces, illicit hand car wash operators were probably wondering when MPs would wake up to the problems they pose. What few were expecting, however, ...
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Analysis
Stephen Marcos Jones: director general, UKPIA
The eighth high-level meeting of the EU Refining Forum was held in April in Brussels. The Refining Forum was first established in 2013 in recognition of the need to address the cumulative impact of policies on the EU refining industry. This important annual meeting brings together representatives from industry, Member ...
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Analysis
Tracy West: retail commentator
With plastic currently ’pubic enemy number one’ it was interesting to read about eco brand Ecover’s recent pop-up Rubbish Cafe in London. If you wanted to go inside, you had to ’pay’ with recyclable plastic rubbish but once inside, you could savour goodies from a zero-waste menu from eco chef ...
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Analysis
UK Hand Car Wash Market - Key Fact
Size 10,000 hand car washes (7,000 mechanical washes), around 60% of total 110 million washes per year (45 million mechanical washes), 70% of total 80% share of total car wash income (including valeting) £200m potential annual loss to HMRC in unpaid taxes Trade Effluent Over ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
Consolidation continues to be on trend as yet more giants, this time Sainsbury’s and Asda, come together to create a mammoth grocery, general merchandise and clothing retail group with a combined revenue of £51bn. And let’s not forget about the 630 or so service stations they have between them, meaning ...
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Analysis
Ray Blake: PRA technical director
How communication and technology have changed and keep changing never ceases to astound me. In the field of fuel dispensing into vehicles we first heard the term ’payment app’ about five or six years ago. For the past couple of years, forums in which I participate have been trying to ...
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Analysis
Charlotte Blum: analysis editor, Argus Media
Brent crude futures at this week topped $75/bl for the first time since November 2014, pushed up by tensions in the Middle East that are exacerbating the underlying effects of strong demand and producers’ output restraint. UK drivers are not yet feeling the pressure of the latest $6-7/bl rise as ...
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Analysis
Fuel for thought
Shell added some perspective to the ’electric’ onslaught last month with the opening of a new hydrogen refuelling station at Shell Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire. It happened in the same week as the Department for Transport confirmed a multi-million pound funding boost to increase the uptake of hydrogen. Days later ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
Good to see hydrogen getting a bit of media coverage as a worthy contender for powering vehicles in the future. There has been such a powerful onslaught from those pushing the electric agenda that anyone would think the future of fuels has been decided, despite the many challenges and limitations ...
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Analysis
Kevin Eastwood: BOSS - executive director
Last month BOSS was able to report that crime on Britain’s retail forecourts fell by 12.2% during the final quarter of 2017. Despite this success, crime on forecourts remains at an unacceptable level. BOSS is already returning £1m a year to forecourt retailers and this figure is likely to ...
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Analysis
Charlotte Blum: analysis editor, Argus Media
Demand growth and a strong commitment by Opec and its partners to their continued production cuts have supported prices even as worries of a potential US-China trade war are casting a shadow over expectations of strong demand growth. In late March, Brent futures on Ice topped $70/bl for the ...
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Analysis
James Lowman: ACS chief executive
We recently published our annual Crime Report, looking at the overall scale and impact of crimes committed against the convenience sector, covering everything from staff theft and fraud, to robberies and ram raids. The headline figures paint a stark picture with almost a million incidents of shop theft reported by ...
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Analysis
Opportunity knocks?
With the two biggest members of Forecourt Trader’s Top 50 Indies snapping up more and more of the other groups in the listing, it was only a matter of time before they began to consider the biggest deal of all, but its timing still took many people by surprise. It ...
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Analysis
Tracy West: retail commentator
The first of the Bank Holidays hits later this month with Good Friday on March 30, followed closely by Easter Monday on April 2. The true meaning of Easter may have been forgotten by most people, but it still resonates with many thanks to those extra days off work for ...
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Analysis
Brian Madderson: PRA chairman
With almost the entire UK recently feeling the arctic effects of the ’Beast from the East’ mingling with Storm Emma, my thoughts turned to all those drivers stuck for hours in their vehicles. Then my thoughts turned to Electric Vehicles (EVs), and I wondered just how long their batteries would ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: editor
Well wow what a deal! MFG and MRH coming together to create one big group (see News Extra, page 10). We had reported the rumours in Forecourt Trader, but generally in the industry few seemed overly invested in the idea that it would really happen. Many thought it was ...
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Analysis
David Charman: chairman Car Wash Association
Recently there have been several high-profile raids on unregulated hand car washes (HCW). In the largest, police raided hand car washes and 30 residential addresses in Milton Keynes. Officers found 36 "modern slaves", 13 people were arrested and large quantities of drugs were found. This confirms that government and the ...