As a prominent forecourt in the heart of Cumbria, Ullswater Road Garage is something of a local landmark. Now, after almost 20 years with Gulf, it wears a Murco livery.
The circa-3.5mlpa filling station has a large Nisa-branded convenience shop complete with in-store Subway, plus a rollover car wash and two jet-wash bays.
But what drove the move from Gulf to Murco? For insight into that, we spoke to Jenny Haselden, director at Ullswater Road Garage.
“This was not a decision taken lightly”, Haselden told us. “We had been with Gulf since we purchased the site in 2006, and felt it was time to look elsewhere to see what was on offer”. She adds that she felt “the site would benefit from re branding”, and that a new fuel supplier would “give new interest” to the business.
The four-acre site sits in the south-west corner of the historic town of Penrith, just a few miles from the lake it takes its name from. As well as being neatly located for travellers headed to and from the Lake District National Park, Ullswater Road is just a couple of hundred metres from J40 of the M6, making it a popular stop-off for motorway traffic.
Haselden has been here for around 40 years and there’s a lot going on, the garage being as much a small business park as a filling station.
The family-owned firm counts an on-site Subaru and KGM (previously known as SsangYong) car dealership and associated workshop as part of its portfolio, while it also has a car and van rental business on the plot. Plus Ullswater Garage is home to a number of commercial units, which are rented out to firms offering everything from vinyl printing and window sales, to carpet supply and a hair-product lab and manufacturing facility. The firm’s success, Haselden says, is down to “hard work and excellent staff”.
Having provided the year’s notice required by the contract with Gulf, Haselden had time to “look at the market in general”, and considered offers put on the table by “various companies wanting to come onto the site”.
Murco won out in the end, and there were two key reasons for this. First, the firm was “proactive in offering a deal that was attractive” and second, the British oil company was “enthusiastic about the site”, Haselden says.
While commercial considerations are clearly key to such decisions, Murco’s enthusiasm for the site was also a big driver. And while Ullswater may be somewhat unique from a business perspective, forecourts are often family-owned businesses, their success the result of decades of dedication. Fuel retailing may be a business, in other words, but it’s also often personal.
