All Analysis articles – Page 9
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Analysis
Bio logic
The fuel industry is gearing up for its biggest change in recent years - and it’s all in an effort to go green. Last month MPs voted in favour of the government’s Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO), which aims to bring the UK into line with EU environmental targets. The ...
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Analysis
A Taxing Issue
Filling up at the pumps has got a lot more painful recently. With the price of a litre of fuel topping the £1 mark at forecourts up and down the country, motorists’ hackles have been rising. Gordon Brown’s 2p tax hike has stirred up a real hornets’ nest, with industry ...
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Analysis
Taken for granted
The number of petrol stations serving the motoring public has been falling for years but suddenly, it seems, the whole world is beginning to take an interest, with coverage in the national press and on TV and radio bemoaning the loss of the community forecourt. The latest figures from forecourt ...
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Analysis
Wash out
This summer’s floods caused havoc at forecourts across the country - but it was when the water started to drain away that the real problems started. Some forecourt operators have been so badly hit they are expecting to be closed for weeks. For others, the repair work and insurance claims ...
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Analysis
The fuel faithful
Investment in shops across the continent should sometimes be treated with caution, and retailers could encourage more convenient channels of quick payment for fuel-only customers. That’s the message from Datamonitor in its latest report: The Competitive Landscape in European Forecourt Convenience Retailing. "As margins on fuel have dropped, there has ...
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Analysis
Wash board
This time last year the south east of England was in the grip of drought orders, with many petrol retailers fearing their car washes would be shut down - with dire consequences to their business. And while the current soggy weather couldn’t be more contrasting to that of 2006, certain ...
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Analysis
Crime by numbers
Fuel buyers could be forgiven for feeling uneasy next time they hand over their plastic at the filling station. Last year 60% of the 250 credit card fraud ’hot spots’ in the UK were petrol forecourts, according to APACS, the UK payments association, and the problem was recently highlighted when ...
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Analysis
Fiasco fuels alarm
Last month’s furore over contaminated fuel brought some unexpected good fortune to many independent retailers, with increases in fuel volumes of as much as 40% or more being reported by some sites. But that may not have been the only benefit. PRA director Ray Holloway believes the petrol retailing industry ...
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Analysis
Alive & kicking
The UK forecourt sector is healthy, with independent operators leading the way, according to Arthur Renshaw, Catalist’s UK and Ireland sales manager, speaking at the Energy Institute’s inaugural Forecourt Strategies and Trends conference last month. With sites currently disappearing at the rate of about 300 a year - there were ...
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AnalysisWaiting game
News that Torex Retail plc was being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office, shortly after it had announced a dire profits warning followed by a suspension of share dealing, has sent shivers down the spines of the many forecourt operators who use the company’s retail systems. There are estimated to ...
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Analysis
Double take
Last year saw a steep rise in the number of oil company and grocery retailer partnerships, a trend that is undoubtedly going to continue into 2007, according to Greg Hodge, retail forecourt analyst at Planet Retail, in his latest report on the global forecourt market. "Oil companies across the globe ...
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Analysis
Get connected
The idea of taking on a franchise is instinctively taboo for most independent retailers. But that is what’s on offer from BP as it deems the trial of its Connect and Wild Bean Café franchise - on two sites belonging to Motor Fuels Ltd - a success, and has put ...
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Analysis
Highly charged
Exorbitant credit card charges are at the centre of the toughest battle being faced by retailers in the US, according to Hank Armour, president and CEO of the National Association of Convenience stores, which represents the US convenience and petroleum retailing industry. Appealing to retailer members to join the fight ...
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Analysis
Age concern
Unless you’ve had a very long holiday on a desert island, you will all know about a major tranche of age discrimination legislation which comes into force this month. It will mean, for example that, advertising for a ’mature’ person to do a job or someone with a specific amount ...
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Analysis
Poles Apart
Two major oil companies, two major fuel-related launches on the same day. One rolls out a leading environmentalist. The other unleashes a Formula 1 car onto the streets of London. Their mission - to entice more customers onto their forecourts to sell them more fuel? Well, probably not in the ...
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Analysis
Squeezy Street
Why is Shell doing it? It’s the question on the lips of certain dealers having to operate within the vicinity of a cluster of Shell co-owned sites that, for some time, have been displaying fuel prices totally out of sync with other local forecourts. In these areas, while many forecourts ...
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Analysis
Emission impossible?
After years of consultation, smaller sites have been given a reprieve as the government finalises new legislation to curb vapour emissions from petrol pumps. Final plans for implementing stage II vapour recovery - officially known as Petrol Vapour Recovery II - mean that service stations selling more than 3.5m litres ...
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Analysis
It’s a bore
What could turn out to be the driest summer for 100 years has given many petrol retailers in the south east some sleepless nights. With car washing one of the three main profit centres of a petrol retailing business - alongside petrol and the forecourt shop - the merest hint ...
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Analysis
Pound of flesh
As BP’s Lord Browne warns motorists that filling up with petrol may soon cost £1-a-litre, diesel prices on some sites have already burst through the £1 barrier, leaving retailers to ponder the impact such prices may have on their businesses. Independent dealer Jonathan James said: "Around here we’re trying to ...
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Analysis
Be seen to be green
The pressure on fuel retailers to open their eyes to alternative fuels was squeezed a little harder last month when Morrisons announced the opening of the UK’s first bioethanol E85 fuel pump. The launch, on Morrisons’ site in Albion Way, Norwich, was timed to coincide with the first deliveries of ...
