All Forecourt Trader articles in February 2006
View all stories from this issue.
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NewsGet your tickets now for Top Indies Dinner 2006
Forecourt Trader has announced the launch of the first listing of the Top 50 independent petrol retailers in the UK. It has been compiled using the criteria of site numbers, fuel volume and turnover. The results will be published in a commemorative supplement in the March edition of Forecourt Trader.To ...
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AnalysisPumping up shop sales
Fears that pay-at-pump technology could have a detrimental effect on forecourt shop sales have been dispelled in a new study by shopper research specialist HIM. The company interviewed 680 forecourt customers across 63 different sites at the end of 2005 and concluded that, in fact, the reverse could be true. ...
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Pepsi’s smooth ride
PepsiCo is spending £5m on the relaunch of PJ Smoothies, which it acquired last year. This will include new-look packaging and flavours as well as a TV advertising campaign with the slogan ‘Want fruit, Drink Fruit’.The 250ml range features eight flavours, including four Super Smoothies which offer additional functional benefits. ...
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OPT trial success
A recent trial by VBi, retail and fuel management system specialists, has found that Outdoor Payment Terminals (OPTs) are popular with customers. Results showed that as awareness and confidence in the technology grew over a two-month pilot, average sales increased by 10%. The trial in County Durham featured VBi’s Illumina ...
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Mini snacks
Red Mill Snack Foods is launching a mini sausage snacking range.Available this month, Kabs are Kabanos-style mini pork sausages in a 70g pack and come in either classic or chilli flavours. The product comes in clip-stripped bags that can be stored at both chilled and ambient temperatures. Meanwhile, Red Mill’s ...
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Muffin makers
Rational has developed a new easy-to-use muffin tray to go with its Self Cooking Center. The tray comes in two sizes, with either 12 or 24 non-stick moulds. Retailers just fill the moulds with muffin batter and select ‘Sweet Baking’ on the Self Cooking Center.Vic Brown, managing director of Rational, ...
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NewsMain route to success
Teamwork seems to be the name of the game in the main route category, with two married couples extending their partnerships onto the forecourt with great success. MAIN ROUTE WINNER 2005 Winning independents Mike and Julie Dearing of the Chatham Road Service Station in Maidstone, Kent were thrilled to claim ...
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NewsLoyalty for Pace
Pace Petroleum has launched a new site loyalty scheme for its dealer network. Known simply as the Pace Loyalty Card, the scheme replaces Q8GO, which has been closed down following the sale of the company by Kuwait Petroleum in October 2004.Pace has linked up with loyalty card specialist Key Points ...
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NewsWalkers’ new look
Walkers has announced a £20m relaunch of its core crisp range following a reduction in fat and salt content – said to be the most significant change in the brand’s history.A new healthier recipe sees the crisps cooked in sunseed oil and containing 70% less saturated fat than in 2005. ...
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Lynx launches new smellies
Leading male grooming brand Lynx has launched a new fragrance, Click, supported by a £7m marketing campaign featuring film star Ben Affleck. TV and cinema ads for Lynx ‘Click’ break this month and are the first to feature a celebrity in the brand’s 21 year history. Made by Unilever, ...
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NewsRoley leaves as Jet re-shuffles
Jet’s charismatic brand and communications manager, Roy Roley, (pictured right) is to leave Jet at the end of February. Roley, who for a long time has been the voice of the Jet brand, was the mastermind behind many of Jet’s dealer marketing schemes, including the long-running ‘Smile’ loyalty scheme, Jet’s ...
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Mo’gas: An irreverent view from the network
SO HOW DID YOUR December end up then? While the High Street as a whole had a late revival, discussions with my friends seem to point to forecourts having a pretty thin time of it all. Volumes and margins were OK, and once upon a time that would have been ...
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HTEC sets the Pace
Pace Petroleum is to roll out HTEC’s Hydra Chip & PIN Outdoor Payment Terminal (OPT) to their unmanned petrol retailing sites. The company currently has six totally unmanned forecourts. The new terminals will update these sites to Chip & PIN technology. Part of the unmanned solution will be the deployment ...
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Secure your future
Latest figures released by the British Oil Security Syndicate (BOSS), show that in 2004 forecourts lost £16.3m through drive-offs and a further £5.1m thanks to drivers who claimed they had ‘no means of payment’ for their fuel. Add in robbery, burglary and other thefts and the total losses rise to ...
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FPS Exhibition
FPS 2006, the Federation of Petroleum Suppliers’ exhibition for the oil distribution industry, will take place at the Harrogate International Centre on April 5 and 6. With more than 100 stands, the FPS says this year’s show is its biggest ever. It runs in tandem with the Distributor 06 conference ...
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Edensure’s hot product
February sees the launch of a new remote wet stock management service targeted at independents, called Edensure ES3. Martin McTague, managing director of Edensure Ltd, describes it as the most advanced wet stock management service available in the UK, designed to help independents tackle the huge problems of wet stock ...
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NewsDriven to succeed
Nerve and determination. That’s what it takes to invest £1.65 million in a new state-of-the art service station development at the age of 59 – and Mike Dransfield has it in bucket-loads. He was not going to be beaten when proposals for a new A5 bypass threatened to sideline his ...
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Drinking in the fruit
Hero, the Swiss-based food group, says it is introducing a new category of ‘drinking fruit’ to the UK. Fruit2day combines fruit pieces with purees and juices, to provide the equivalent of two portions of fruit in one 205ml bottle.Available in three variants, the product is aimed at busy consumers looking ...
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NewsShop Doctor: Local Service Station/Mace, The Mount, Shrewsbury
After a great visit to the fine medieval town of Shrewsbury, while heading west towards Welshpool on the A458 I was able to make a stealthcheck on a service station. My target was the Local Service Station and Mace Express at The Mount, which is about a mile from the ...
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Top indies dinner at IFFE
The industry’s top independent retailers will be brought together for an exclusive dinner to coincide with the International Fuel & Forecourt Exhibition (IFFE) in Birmingham in March. Forecourt Trader has been rating the leading indies, with the results to be published in our March issue. The dinner will be held ...