All Forecourt Trader articles in January 2004
View all stories from this issue.
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NewsTaxing times
Another year, another set of new regulations regarding the sale of tobacco. The latest came into play on January 1, with regard to tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide levels. The maximum level for tar content is now 10mg, for nicotine it is 1mg and for carbon monoxide 10mg. The tobacco ...
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News
Smooth talking
Imperial Tobacco has rebranded Richmond Gold to Richmond Smooth, and Richmond Superkings Gold to Richmond Superkings Smooth.The manufacturer has also launched a 10-pack of Superkings Smooth. Iain Watkins, trade communications specialist at Imperial Tobacco, said: “Our research shows consumers prefer the Smooth descriptor, and the Smooth 10s fills a ...
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News
Spinner for smaller sites
Video Box Office has unveiled a spinner to display 110 DVD and VHS films, games and CDs.Anthony Skitt, VBO’s commercial director, said: “The introduction of new technologies such as dvd and PS2 has made the home entertainment market one of the fastest growing consumer products.” The spinner has been developed ...
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News
Rules is rules
As one petrol retailer observed to me recently, you can hardly walk across the forecourt without breaking some regulation or other. The Association of Convenience Stores phoned with a query on age-related goods. One of their members wanted to know the legal age for selling petrol. Apparently trading standards had ...
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News
Smell a rat?
Here’s a seasonal story for you. Chris and Marion Clark, who run Marion’s Shop and Filling Station on Rousay in the Orkneys, wondered why every Switch transaction via Streamline in the run-up to Christmas involved a call to Streamline’s authorisation centre. “As a consequence,” says Chris, “our customers have been ...
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News
Rental package for small sites
Video Box Office has launched a rental package for the small rural retailer.The VBO Local library scheme package comprises 60 to 80 films, of which 20 will be top titles.Retailers receive new releases on a weekly basis. The scheme costs £39 (excl VAT) per week.01733 233464
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Analysis
Sunny outlook
Nearly one quarter of the players in the petrol retailing sector have shown unprecedented confidence about their prospects for the coming year, according to a new survey by financial publishers, Plimsoll. And with sales set to increase an average one per cent and profit margins likely to remain low but ...
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News
Sue online
One of the forecourt operators who contacted me about Deal Direct/Our Price was Bernard Knowles who runs Forge Garage in North Yorkshire. He had his fingers burned in dealing with Deal Direct and issued a small claims court summons over the internet. The company, which had not been responding to ...
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News
Pastures new
The booming residential property market is continuing to impact positively on the market for forecourt property. Prices – while still not as strong as pre-Pricewatch days – are improving year on year.“The market is more active than it has been in recent years,” says John Couling, associate director of Lambert ...
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News
Surprise at level prices
The prices of unleaded fuel and diesel are in a period of almost unprecedented stability, according to the latest Allstar Fuel report from fleet and fuel management company Arval PHH. It has found that since mid-August the prices of both diesel and unleaded have varied by less than a penny ...
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News
Rizla shrinks King Size Red papers
Rizla King Size Red papers are to be relaunched in a narrower format – from 55mm to 44mm.The length remains the same and the new width will be highlighted to smokers via on-pack messages.A marketing programme to support the relaunch includes lifestyle press advertising between February and April in 2004.Gary ...
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News
Mo’gas: An irreverent view from the network
SO I WAKE UP ON CHRISTMAS MORNING and the room feels decidedly chilly. After a quick check to make sure the radiators are switched on I venture downstairs to discover that the boiler isn’t working. Now considering we were having a houseful round for Christmas lunch this is not good ...
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News
Prices galore as website goes live
A new website, is being launched this month which could radically change the way independent fuel retailers do business, according to Darren Briggs, managing director of a recently formed company based in Wales, called Big Oil Associates. The company hassigned an agreement with Platts – the global leader in energy ...
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News
Does this sound familiar?
The flyer from Our Price offered ‘amazingly low priced, fast-selling chart DVDs’ along with a free counter display, window poster, delivery, 25 per cent profit margin on every DVD sold and a 100 per cent sale or return guarantee.A number of you rang up to enquire whether Our Price and ...
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NewsEverything’s fine really...
Back in the balmy days of last summer, we received a call from a reader asking whether he could have a set of our published sales and margin figures covering the last 12 months, the idea being that he could show his managers how much better their forecourts were doing ...
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News
Health drinks for kids
A range of healthy drinks for children has been launched by Metro Drinks.Juice Patrol are 100 per cent additive-free fruit juice drinks with reduced sugar in two flavours – orange & mango and strawberry & banana.Available in 500ml PET bottles with sports cap, Juice Patrol is aimed at seven to ...
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News
Pipe dream
BP and Total were both named and shamed as two of the most persistent polluters in 2002. All for letting fuel leak from underground tanks and pipework. BP faced fines of £60,000 in October for allowing the equivalent of a road tanker of fuel to escape a 30-year-old tank before ...
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News
New show shares the stage with CRS
The importance of convenience retailing for today’s forecourt operators is acknowledged this March with the launch of the Forecourt Retailing Show, NEC, Birmingham, March 14-17. Part of the Convenience Retailing Show 2004, the event is the initiative of Forecourt Trader and Convenience Store publisher, William Reed Business Media Ltd, which ...
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News
LRP supply not in crisis
Fuel distributor, Bayford & Co, has vowed to continue meeting demand for low sulphur leaded fuel, despite Government claims of an imminent LRP supply crisis.Jonathan Turner, managing director, Bayford & Co, said: “Whether intentional or not, recent comments from both the AA and Department for Transport are misleading and have ...