All Columnists articles – Page 22
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Analysis
Shop Talk with Tracy West
Three cheers for David Charman, whose Parkfoot Garage in West Malling, Kent, scooped the Convenience Retailer of the Year award last month. I don’t live too far away from this site so managed to take a look recently, and it really is very impressive. Where I live, the forecourts aren’t ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton Editor: Flushed with success
First let me congratulate the team at Bodmin Moor Services in Cornwall, part of the Chartman Group, for their admirable accomplishment in winning this year’s award for the UK’s Best Forecourt Loo (see news story on page 4). What they have achieved is no mean feat firstly to keep their ...
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Analysis
Kevin Eastwood: BOSS executive director
There are one million reasons why BOSS has had a significant impact on forecourt crime over the past three years. This month BOSS recoveries for No Means of Payment (NMoP) cases reached a staggering £1m as a direct result of the BOSS Payment Watch scheme. Payment Watch is underpinned by ...
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Analysis
James Lowman: ACS chief executive
We have had a run of major announcements affecting retail from George Osborne in his Budgets and Autumn Financial Statements, so by his standards the latest one was a low key affair. The compelling statistics were there: the economy is back in growth (2.4%) and the number of people unemployed ...
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Analysis
Tracy West: Shop Talk
If you’re not already selling e-cigarettes, you really should be. That’s because a hot-off-the-press report from Mintel says the market has achieved a stunning 340% growth over the past year, from an estimated £44m in 2012 to an estimated £193m last year. Wow is all I can say and get ...
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Analysis
David Charman: chairman CWA
What a start to the car washing year rain, rain and more rain. The only consolation we can take from this is that there will be no water shortages around the corner. Famous last words? It is surprising how many people are prepared to clean their cars when the wind ...
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Analysis
Brian Madderson: chairman PRA
After four years at the helm of the Petrol Retailers Association, it is good to be able to pen a more positive note at the start of 2014. Retailers may have forgotten that despite PRA’s late intervention, cutting back the overall liability by around 14% for forecourt properties in England, ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Esso opportunity
So the final tranche of Esso’s company- owned network is now the focus of ambitious forecourt entrepreneurs as the official push to sell the southern block of 200 sites gets under way. Whether they’re new to the industry or established fuel retailers hoping to expand their networks, they will all ...
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Analysis
Shop Talk with Tracy West
What have Quaker Oat So Simple breakfast biscuits, Maltesers Merryteaser, Mars Minis, Persil Small & Mighty and Tropicana Trop 50 all got in common? They’re all winners of 2014 Product of the Year you know, you’ve probably seen those red and white ’Voted Product of the Year’ stamps on adverts. ...
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Analysis
Peter Harding - Retail technology consultant
Many rumours abounded in 2013 about technology and what it could do for us. This year the push seems to be on three key technology areas and I bring a few to the fore in this article. The main emphasis falls into the following areas: mobile, wearable technology and 3D ...
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Analysis
Chris Hunt: UKPIA director general
Stepping into a New Year calls for reflection and 2013 was a momentous one for our downstream oil industry. UKPIA hit the ground running in 2013 with a joint publication with the RAC Foundation, by Ricardo-AEA, ’Powering Ahead: The future of low-carbon cars and fuels’. This incisive report set out ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Major frustration
The major oil brands have come in for a bit of flack in this issue and you sense that the balance of power is shifting. The consistent message from independents is that they’re just not getting the kind of service that they need to develop their businesses. They’re very put ...
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Analysis
Shop Talk with Tracy West
Happy New Year to you all let’s hope it’s a good one! It’s always difficult to predict the future but, at this time of year, industry people are falling over themselves to give it a go. Take Sainsbury’s, for instance, which has said shoppers are better than ever at finding ...
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Analysis
Kevin Eastwood: BOSS executive director
How many times can a motorist fill up, claim to have left their method of payment behind, promise to pay within a week but then fail to do so? Once, possible, twice, doubtful, three times or more suggests treatment for Alzheimers or they’re behaving in a dishonest manner and should ...
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Analysis
James Lowman: chairman ACS
There is a growing consensus that radical change to the business rates system is required. We have been arguing for a long time that if the government wants to see businesses investing and creating jobs, then it has to take clear steps to reduce the costs that stand in its ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: 2014 - positive signs
And so another year begins, and apart from the rather bleak weather there’s definitely an increasingly positive feel coming from the industry as we head into 2014. Yes, it’s still very tricky and competitive out there, and it’s certainly no time to relax the strict disciplines and practices learned in ...
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Analysis
Shop talk with Tracy West
It’s that most wonderful time of the year Christmas, of course. And, as an independent retailer, it’s your time to shine. Really play up to your strengths as an independent. You and your staff know a lot of your customers by name so, even though you’re busy, make sure you ...
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Analysis
David Charman - Chairman CWA
As we enter the money months of car washing, take time to reflect on what has happened within our industry over the past few years. The UK is a highly mechanised mature economy and yet a few years ago, with mass immigration, the wash industry entered a cycle, returning to ...
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Analysis
Brian Madderson - Chairman PRA
We all remember the ’panic buying’ in late March 2012 when there was the prospect of industrial action by Unite tanker drivers that could have interrupted fuel supplies to forecourts across the UK. This situation had been inflamed by ill-judged advice from a Cabinet Minister that encouraged motorists to stock ...
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Analysis
Merril Boulton: Signs of a lively and prosperous 2014
We may be hurtling towards the end of the year, but there’s no sign yet of a quiet night in by the Christmas tree for the likes of Brian Madderson, and the industry’s new best friend Alan Powell, the tax expert who is described as having successfully challenged the government ...