All Forecourt Trader articles in August 2013
View all stories from this issue.
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News
Costcutter signs £35m refinancing deal
Costcutter Supermarkets Group has signed a £35m refinancing deal with Barclays. The group says the three-year term of the refinancing will support both business growth and the current transition period following the announcement in March that Costcutter Supermarkets Group has entered a strategic partnership with Palmer and Harvey for buy ...
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News
Manager critically injured in drive-off attack
Two people have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a forecourt manager was critically injured during a drive-off. A 19-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl were arrested in Chatham in the early hours of this morning. Lekshmanan Asokkumar, who manages the Texaco garage in West Kingsdown, Kent, was ...
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News
First new generation Spar branded forecourt opens
The first of a new generation of Spar-branded forecourts in the UK has opened following the development of the concept by Spar and Harvest Energy. B & M Harland, in Pickering, North Yorkshire, which is owned by retailer Geoff Harland, features Spar branding on the canopy, pumps, poll sign and ...
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News
Water contamination strands Morrisons customers
A Morrisons supermarket in North Wales was forced to shut down one of its unleaded petrol pumps after fuel became contaminated with water and cars which had just been refuelled broke down on the forecourt. Around a dozen motorists were stranded at the Morrisons store in Ruthin Road, Wrexham, on ...
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News
PRA welcomes plan to extend rural fuel rebate
The PRA has welcomed moves by the Treasury to extend the rural fuel rebate scheme. The Treasury has announced that it plans to seek permission from the European Commission to extend the scheme, which currently provides a 5 pence per litre (ppl) rebate to retailers in the Scilly Isles, the ...
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News
Fuel thief sent to prison
A man has been sent to prison for 12 weeks following a drive-off in Northamptonshire last month. Noel Majores, 24, was one of two men convicted for fuel theft after they drove off without paying from the BP service station on the A43 near Brackley on Tuesday, July 9. Majores ...
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News
Supermarket sales surge in heatwave
The July heatwave contributed to sales growth rates almost twice that achieved by the UK’s leading supermarkets during the London 2012 Games – one of last year’s peak sales periods – according to the latest retailer performance figures released by Nielsen. Aggregate sales value growth for the UK’s leading supermarkets ...
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News
£1.5m boost to security
Brian Donaldson, chief operating officer of The Maxol Group, has welcomed the announcement that an additional £1.5m will be spent on new surveillance equipment and additional staff as part of a heightened offensive against criminals involved in fuel laundering in Northern Ireland. He said: "Maxol has always been committed to ...
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News
PRA warns about surge in prices
Prices for petrol could surge up to 140 pence per litre (ppl), with diesel rising to 144ppl, due to currency fluctuations pushing up wholesale fuel prices, the PRA has warned.PRA chairman Brian Madderson said: "The unexpected crash in the exchange rate for the Pound against the US Dollar, from US$1.58 ...
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News
Top indies share best practice at ACS seminar
Top 50 indies Patrick Sewell of Sewell Retail and Jeremy Clarke of Motor Fuel Group shared their philosophies on running a petrol retail business at the annual Forecourt Seminar organised by the Association of Convenience Stores and Petrol Retailers Association.Record numbers attended the event at the King Power Stadium in ...
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News
MPs call for action over refining cost
MPs have urged the Government to take action to maintain the health of the UK oil refining industry. The House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee’s report on UK Oil Refining, called for government action to address the burden of UK and EU legislative requirements that affect the competitiveness ...
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News
Service Centre: Jac Roper looks at computer headaches, a welcome refund and advice on staff
You really don’t need crashes After 18 months of firefighting with a system that is meant to help him run his business, Jon Brownsey says he is beyond angry now. He first got in touch with Forecourt Trader last September over ongoing problems at his Fordingbridge Service Station, Hampshire, with ...
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News
Former Costcutter boss advises KPMG
KPMG has hired Nick Ivel, the former group chief executive of Costcutter Supermarkets, as a consultant to advise the firm’s clients on their convenience store strategy. During Ivel’s 14-year tenure at Costcutter the annual turnover of the group increased from £198m to £650m. David McCorquodale, head of retail at KPMG ...
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NewsShop Doctor: In the surgery this month: Applegreen Fairies Cross, Oakpark Road, Tralee, Co Kerry
GENERAL APPEARANCE: Applegreen Fairies Cross is located in the Republic of Ireland on the outskirts of Tralee, the county town of County Kerry. It is a corner site with a lot of passing traffic and is near the Kerry Technology Park and the Tralee Pitch & Putt Club. The distinctive ...
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News
Three suspected cigarette smugglers arrested
Three men have been arrested in Peterborough on suspicion of smuggling an estimated 8.3 million cigarettes into the UK and evading about £1.5m in excise duty. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) criminal investigators, assisted by Cambridgeshire Police, arrested the men last Friday morning, 2 August, as the tobacco was being ...
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News
Pop art packs a punch
Republic Technologies is celebrating the 130th anniversary of Swan with a range of limited-edition packaging for its top-selling products. The new pop-art style designs are available on Slim loose filter tips, extra slim Pop filter tips and slim Pop filter tips. Retailers are being encouraged to capitalise on the brand’s ...
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News
Global ATM provider buys Cardpoint
Global ATM company Cardtronics has acquired Cardpoint, which trades as ATM services provider Cashzone in the UK. In conjunction with the deal, Cardtronics is introducing a new corporate identity for its European operations, Cardtronics Europe, which will include Cashzone and Bank Machine, Cardtronics’ existing UK subsidiary. Cardtronics chief executive officer ...
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News
Musical attractions
Relentless’ first-ever on-pack promotion gives the brand’s core audience of 18-29-year-olds the opportunity to win a "money-can’t-buy experience" to attend an intimate 250-capacity gig hosted by Radio 1 presenter Zane Lowe.To enter the draw, consumers simply have to enter the on-pack code at www.relentlessenergy.com, along with their details. The promotion ...
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News
Susie sells award-winning site
Top 50 Indie, Simon Smith Retail, has sold its award-winning Barnwood Budgens site in Gloucester.The company received "an offer they couldn’t refuse" from BP/M&S Simply Food, director Susie Hawkins told Forecourt Trader. "It was a good deal for us and a good deal for them," she said.The site won the ...
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News
Bags more lines
New Cadbury Dairy Milk Pebbles are little pebble-shaped bites of chocolate in a sugar shell. The innovation joins the Cadbury bitesize bags range which already includes Twirl Bites, Bitsa Wispa and Cadbury Crunchums.Also new are Cadbury Eclairs in a hazelnut twist variety where the chocolate centre of the sweet is ...