All Forecourt Trader articles in August 2013 – Page 3
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News
New faces on shelf
Cadbury Dairy Milk Freddo is bringing new faces to the confectionery fixture with the launch of Freddo Faces. The new fun product features 10 individual faces made from Cadbury Dairy Milk, with five different expressions happy, in love, grumpy, confused and cheeky to ensure there’s a Freddo Face ...
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News
Shock new figures undermine OFT findings
January’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report on the road fuel market has been seriously undermined by new market share figures for supermarkets released by the Government. They show the supermarkets have a far higher share of the road fuels market than previously admitted. The latest combined total for petrol and diesel sees an increase to 46.5% in 2012. This compares with 39% for 2012 stated in the OFT report, which gave a clean bill of health to the way the market operates. The figure of 39% was also reported for 2011 in a report by Deloitte – Study of the UK petroleum retail market. This report was commissioned and published last year by the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC), and was used by DECC as proof of the security of UK fuel supplies. The PRA said it was told the statistical data on retail fuel volumes since 2008 has recently been revised on the DECC website, after gross reporting errors were uncovered by officials. PRA chairman Brian Madderson commented: “5,000 forecourts have closed since 2000, another 175 closed last year and the independent retailers are continuing to get massacred by the aggressive discounting and below cost sales tactics by supermarkets. “There was considerable complacency evident in the Deloitte and OFT reports which assumed that supermarket volumes were levelling off and so the market was steady. However, we warned Government that the 2012 Christie study indicated that supermarkets are trying to open up to 50 new forecourts for each of the next four years.” “The data revision indicates that the average hyper sells 12 million litres per year and independents 2 million litres. Thus every new-to-industry opening by a hyper could suck up the entire fuel volume of six independent retailers in the local area and jeopardise the business of at least 10 existing forecourts every year if such expansion proceeded. This is will be bad for competition, bad for consumer choice, bad for jobs at local family firms and bad for rural communities.” Madderson added: “This re-jigging of key market information underpins our members’ real concern that the UK’s energy resilience for retail fuels is at stake. If this situation is allowed to continue, there will be an inevitable acceleration in the number of site closures to more than 300 per year. Thus there will be a severe worsening of supply resilience from fewer sites with low stockholdings. “This should ensure that our request to DECC for a round table review of the independent forecourt industry will receive the full attention of Michael Fallon MP, minister for energy, in the coming weeks.”
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News
Filling stations
You have to be careful when you’re selling sandwiches. The reason? Everyone can make a sandwich so we all know what’s good and what’s not. Quality, freshness, choice and availability are the watchwords according to Andy Valentine, head of brand marketing for Ginsters. And he should know, as Ginsters remains ...
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News
Fragrant freshener
P&G is refreshing its Febreze in-car range to offer consumers a more compact product and a greater range of scents. Using the car’s air flow, the new format gradually releases fragrance as air passes through the device and into the vehicle itself. Advanced technology incorporating an intensity control ensures that ...
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News
Rontec opts for Tokheim IT to help with growth
Rontec, the secondplaced operator in Forecourt Trader’s Top 50 Indies, has decided to install Tokheim’s Fuel POS solution at 125 sites to support the strategic growth of its business in England and Wales.Rontec identified a need for a new point-of-sale solution that was capable of managing all aspects of its ...
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News
Petition handed in to OFT
A petition calling for a full and transparent inquiry into the oil pricing process was handed in at the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) by Quentin Willson of FairFuelUK, Robert Halfon and other MPs from all parties last month.The FairFuelUK petition contained more than 30,000 signatures from campaign supporters which ...
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News
PETER HARDING
In my last column, I spoke of an exciting new technology 3D printing. Well, not 10 days after the item, plans for a gun were published on the web and a model made and fired with live ammunition.Before the authorities could act, if anyone polices the web, 200,000 copies ...
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News
Honesty and transparency pays off for Xmo
Sign installer Xmo Strata is celebrating a landmark in the publication of its weekly Health, Safety and Environmental Bulletins on its website, having reached its 360th issue.The company’s health and safety strategy which involves freely sharing data and analysis, particularly about safety-related matters was derided and ridiculed by ...
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News
Storming the market
No Fear’s new tropical storm and blue storm varieties tap into the fast-growing ’flavours’ sector of the energy drink market.Tropical storm is a pineapple, passion fruit & peach punch flavour while blue storm is a raspberry flavour. Both are available in £1 price-marked packs.No Fear brand manager, Neal Haworth, said: ...
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News
Results of this month’s online poll:
Do you agree with the PRA’s assessment that rising charges for processing card payments are a serious threat to your business?yes 90%no10%The EC’s decision to cap fees for processing card payments is obviously long overdue for the overwheming majority of operators. See the foot of this page, and News Extra, ...
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News
Shelving of plain packaging welcomed
The PRA has welcomed the Government’s decision to shelve proposals for standardised (plain) packaging for tobacco products.PRA chairman Brian Madderson said: "Our members have been deeply concerned about the unintended consequences of this proposal, and we therefore welcome the Government’s decision to support business and focus its efforts on rebuilding ...
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News
Value sweetie packs
Wrigley is launching price-marked packs (PMPs) of Skittles and Starburst, designed to capitalise on the growing consumer demand for value.The smaller hanging bags (Skittles 125g and Starburst 150g), which are exclusive to the wholesale channel, are flashed at £1 on both individual packs and cases.According to Nieslen data, within ...
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News
Well spotted
This month sees the start of a new fuel supply service targeting independent, unbranded fuel retailers across the South East. The source of the supply is Prax Petroleum, which has been building up to this point for several months, publicising its services including exhibiting at April’s Forecourt Show at the ...
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News
Subway opens 4,000th European store
The Subway brand has reached the milestone of 4,000 stores operating in Europe with the opening of the latest outlet in the Gara de Nord railway station in Bucharest, Romania. The first European Subway store opened in the UK, in Brighton, in 1996. Since then the brand has expanded its ...
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News
Spar to advertise on TV
Spar UK will be back on shoppers’ TV screens for the first time in four years, as part of a £5m national multi-media campaign, kicking off in early October. Featuring TV and digital advertising, a customer magazine and in-store communication, Spar’s new campaign is intended to celebrate its convenience and ...
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News
Car auction value and volume up
The average value of used cars sold at auction increased from £4,828 to £4,862 in July and the total volume of sales rose 6% from 83,637 units to 88,697 units, according to the National Association of Motor Auctions (NAMA). NAMA chairman Justin Lane said: “During the first two weeks of ...
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News
Autogas opens new facility in Grimsby
LPG supplier Autogas has opened its first refuelling facility in Grimsby at the newly rebuilt Shell petrol station on Moody Lane. Autogas invested in excess of £67,000 putting the new autogas LPG refuelling facility in to the site as part of Shell’s full refurbishment of the facility. It means that ...
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News
Light commercial vehicle sales slip
The latest light commercial vehicle sales figures were down 0.6% in July but are still up 6.5% for the year-to-date. Van sales dipped 2.6% last month but remained 9.3% ahead year-to-date. “It is positive to see that the commercial vehicle market remained stable during July, with a healthy increase in ...
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News
Man threatens customer with pool cue
A man has been given a suspended prison sentence after threatening a customer on a forecourt with a pool cue and demanding he hand over the keys to his vehicle. Scott Wilson raised the pool cue above his head and ordered Leighton Stephenson to hand over his keys at the ...
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News
Dealer hid drugs on forecourt shelves
A drug dealer hid a package of drugs on the shelves of a petrol station shop in a bid to avoid being caught in possession of them, a court has been told. Craig Steele, who was described as one of Plymouth’s main cannabis dealers, was arrested by police while at ...