All Columnists articles – Page 21
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Analysis
James Lowman: ACS Chief executive
We have recently published the third edition of our annual look at the convenience sector, the Local Shop Report, which contains some great new insights into local shops, the people who run them and the communities they serve. The main story from the report is one of good news the ...
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Analysis
David Charman: chairman CWA
Well, the summer seems to have come and gone all too quickly, but this year has seen car wash revenues increase for the first time in many years. Is it just the weather, or are we winning the battle against the rogue hand washes? Perhaps it is just that the ...
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Analysis
Brian Madderson: chairman PRA
The recent news that the Klesch Group will acquire the UK refinery and terminal assets of Murphy Oil Company and that, around the same time, Motor Fuel Group will acquire its retail assets plus marketing and distribution to the dealers is welcome on several fronts. Firstly, the beleaguered Murco employees ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Murco sold at last
Well thank goodness for that. The Murco network has been sold at last (see News, page 4) after four years on the market. It got to the stage where it seemed like it was never going to happen, and as in a ’whodunnit’ that runs for too long, people seemed ...
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Analysis
Tracy West: Shop Talk
Call me sad but I like a survey. I don’t always believe them, but I like to compare myself with those who’ve been surveyed. One of the surveys that always intrigues me is about the business an ATM is meant to bring to a convenience store. I’m not disputing that ...
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Analysis
Peter Harding: Retail technology consultant
I continue to be amazed by 3D printing. The latest printers are now being retailed at below $250. While this is only a toy, in reality it proves the point that new technologies still exist and abound. Amazon in the US, for example, has launched a new service where you ...
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Analysis
Chris Hunt: UKPIA director general
In the past few months, all eyes have been on the European Parliament elections and the nomination of a new president of the European Commission. As the EU embarks on a new legislative term, we are presented with both new opportunities and new challenges. Above all, one of the most ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Refining at a cost
Amazing to visit the Phillips 66 Humber Refinery last month, and see the complex web of miles of pipework close up (see industry focus page 24), and wonder at the millions of chemical reactions that are constantly taking place within such dramatic structures. You are also made intensely aware of ...
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Analysis
Tracy West: Shop Talk
While travelling through France recently, I purchased a fabulous product called Nutella & Go! That exclamation is theirs, not mine, but it deserves it because it is so good. Remember those KP dips that were all the rage years ago? Pots of chocolate with biscuit fingers to dip in well ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Passion that drives retailers
Fuel retailers are extremely passionate about their business. They have to be to deal with all the daily aggro whether it’s stock problems, equipment breakdowns, needy customers, or those wretched drivers who seem to think they can drive off without paying for fuel. They also have to be passionate to ...
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Analysis
Kevin Eastwood - BOSS executive director
It’s hard to believe but some police forces still treat theft of fuel as a civil offence. Revised Home Office guidance for Making Off Without Payment, issued in April, makes it clear that where an incident is intentional then a crime has been committed.At the British Oil Security Syndicate (BOSS), ...
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Analysis
James Lowman - chairman ACS
We’ve just released the results of an ambitious new project to find out what retailers, councillors and the general public think about the services on their high street. The report, called the Community Barometer, shows what people want in their local area and what they think government priorities should be ...
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Analysis
Shop Talk with Tracy West
If I were a cynic, I might say that Tesco’s decision to ban sweets from the checkouts of its Express and Metro stores was a PR ploy to overshadow its recent financial failures or win back people who believe it to be the ’big, bad wolf’ of retailing. And the ...
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Analysis
David Charman: chairman CWA
What an amazing country we live in: floods and gale force winds at Christmas and then hot sun and cold spells when spring arrives. This time the weather suits the wash industry to a tee. For about a week, southern England and the Midlands found a thick coating of Saharan ...
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Analysis
Brian Madderson: chairman PRA
On May 14, the Prime Minister said that a Scottish ’no’ vote would open the way for the transfer of more powers to Edinburgh. The PRA has been adapting quickly to the new challenges that have arisen through the substantial powers that have already been devolved to the Scottish Parliament, ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Best result since England won the World Cup
Apart from it being really rather pleasing to get the words ’England won the World Cup’ on the cover in the very month that the global football carnival kicks off, the latest industry figures show there are other things to be excited about (see Fuel Market Review, page 26). After ...
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Analysis
Shop Talk with Tracy West
No-one puts a gun to your head when you enter a convenience store or supermarket and makes you buy certain items. But you’d think that was the case if you read the latest findings from Which?. The consumer group sent people into four big supermarket chains wearing special headsets to ...
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Analysis
Peter Harding - Retail technology consultant
An interesting topic in retail every now and then is that of electronic shelf-edge labels (ESEL). These have been around for many, years but as yet no one in the UK has deployed them in any quantity. Historically the ESEL has been expensive and semi manual in so much as ...
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Analysis
Chris Hunt: UKPIA director general
As I write this column, our downstream oil industry in the UK is on the threshold of a new relationship with government, one which we sincerely hope heralds meaningful change. On April 9, the Department of Energy and Climate Change published its review into the refining and fuel import sectors ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Refining future supply
So last month the Government finally produced its report on the refining and fuel import sectors in the UK (it was due early January) and there seems to have been a collective gasp of disappointment (News Extra page 10). Chris Hunt, UKPIA director general (see column page 7) felt it ...