All Columnists articles – Page 2
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AnalysisSERVICE CENTRE: Those spurs will soon be jangling again
Preston-based chartered surveyor Ken Batty, who has spent a lot of his lifetime trying to weed out the cowboys that unfortunately plague his profession, has sent me an email detailing some coming changes in business rate appeals.
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AnalysisMONEY TALK:‘Gross Margins’ aren’t even half of the story
It was interesting to see a collection of senior representatives of some of the largest retail chains being ‘grilled’ (as the popular media like to call it) by a collection of MP’s from the Business & Trade Committee on the subjects of prices and inflation, particularly their alleged ‘profiteering’ in the current inflationary period – not least in the area of fuel retailing.
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AnalysisSERVICE CENTRE: Card payment confusion - Fire station or Service Station?
I got an email from Jon Brownsey in Hampshire saying: “I have an interesting situation which, while not causing me a problem directly, is resulting in a number of customers ’phoning to check they have paid me and not someone else.
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AnalysisMONEY TALK: Assets and depreciation
Perhaps you’re in the fortunate position where you’ve just been able to invest a lot of money revamping your site. New tanks, pipework and some the latest very flash pumps, just for starters.
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Product NewsSHOP TALK: A not-so petty crime
A piece in The Telegraph last weekend got me thinking about how you were all dealing with shoplifting.
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AnalysisTECH TALK: Politicians are beginning to realise that EVs are not the only answer to Net Zero
It was encouraging to see so many insightful proposals on decarbonisation announced recently by the cross-party Transport Select Committee’s Fuelling the Future report – many of which chime with our own view on how the UK can most effectively achieve Net Zero.
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Equipment NewsOnly the name has changed, says Adrian Felton, md of Madic UK (formerly TLM)
TLM technologies has officially changed its name to Madic UK, I have the certificate from Companies House to prove it!
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AnalysisMONEY TALK: Inflationary issues
According to the Office of National Statistics, the inflation rate in the UK (using the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) in the 12 months to March of this year (the latest available figure) was 10.1%, which was slightly below the rate in February (10.4%); this following an annual rate overall of 9.1% during the calendar year 2022.
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AnalysisSERVICE CENTRE: Queries about vapes and staff
Which vapes should I stock? This was the question posed by my old regular correspondent who styles himself as ‘Gassing Around’ (GA). A simple query that raises many complications.
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AnalysisSERVICE CENTRE: A very chilling problem
I got a call to the helpline from Jagdish Radia, who runs Leaway Service Station in Birmingham, regarding his freezer from Caterquip.
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AnalysisSERVICE CENTRE: What use is a broken-down ATM?
When Stanley Kydd got in touch, the ATM at his store – Frances Street Filling Station, in Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland – had been on the blink for quite some time.
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AnalysisMONEY TALK: It’s all automatic. Or is it?
Having recently been asked to help ‘sort out’ some company accounts that were ’a little behind’, it came as something of a shock to log in to their accounting system only to find the first screen showing over 700 (yes, that’s seven hundred!) unreconciled bank transactions on just one of (several) bank accounts.
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AnalysisSERVICE CENTRE: A distinct abuse of power
I received a lengthy email from Tom Dant, who is the MD of Lincolnshire-based Gill Marsh Forecourts/TAG Retail, setting out the very distressing experience he had with Scottish Power.
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AnalysisMONEY TALK: Problem tenants
It seems that yet again a quick look at the Forecourt Trader’s news pages reveals another story highlighting various illegal activities associated with the hand-car-wash (HCW) brigade.
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AnalysisSERVICE CENTRE: a gesture of goodwill and slapped with a £90k fine
Steve Smyth, who is the manager of Harwood Bros Motors (Wootton) Limited on the Isle of Wight, got in touch for “just a bit of advice please”.
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AnalysisMONEY TALK: What price a litre?
The run-up to Christmas produced a rash of stories in the media regarding retail fuel prices, with the usual claims that someone was over-charging (again) and that forecourt prices should have been ‘x’, ‘y’ or ‘z’ pence per litre lower than they actually were.
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AnalysisMONEY TALK: What a year it’s been
Just 12 months ago, there was a quiet optimism (within ‘retail’ – if not necessarily in other sectors of the economy) that 2022 would bring some degree of recovery after two years of the ravages of Covid-19.
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AnalysisSERVICE CENTRE: Software headaches and AI targeting shoplifters
Sebastian Nonis, who runs Forfar Rd Service Station in Dundee, asked Service Centre to try to intervene in the ongoing problems he has with his software from TLM.
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AnalysisMONEY TALK: The storm is on its way and you need to act now
Retail businesses are in danger. It may be more acute than the financial crash of 2010, and even more so than the Covid lockdowns of 2020/21.
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AnalysisPIPELINE: Rising E10 market share driving fundamental shifts
Trade in non-oxygenated gasoline blendstocks has hit record highs in Europe as the roll-out and uptake of E10 gasoline in the continent continues.