All Latest News articles – Page 215
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News
Topaz Energy takeover completed
The takeover of Ireland’s largest convenience and fuel retailer, Topaz Energy Group, by the Canadian convenience store giant Alimentation Couche-Tard has been completed. The companies announced the completion after the EU Commission ratified the deal, which was agreed in early December. Niall Anderton, formerly chief financial officer (CFO) of Topaz, ...
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Government presses on with Sunday Trading change
The government has confirmed that it intends to press ahead with devolution of Sunday trading, despite widespread opposition from MPs on both sides of the House. During the second reading debate of the Enterprise Bill, business minister Sajid Javid announced that plans to deregulate Sunday Trading hours will be added ...
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NewsFuel price plunge bottoming out
Plummeting fuel prices may have bottomed out, according to the RAC, because oil prices have staged a recovery. Since oil reached a 12-year low of $26 a barrel on Wednesday 20 January the price has rebounded, finishing the month at $33.12, only $3 below where it started the month at ...
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Certas Energy company owned sites join BOSS
Certas Energy has joined the forecourt security association BOSS (British Oil Security Syndicate), by installing the BOSS Payment Watch debt recovery system across its portfolio of 24 company-owned sites in Scotland. The introduction of the BOSS Payment Watch debt recovery service across its sites is expected to result in thousands ...
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Welcome Break adopts National Living Wage
Motorway service operator Welcome Break has announced it will pay the National Living Wage to all its employees across the UK from April 1. The National Living Wage will be the minimum starting rate for all of the company’s 5,000-plus employees across its 27 sites, irrespective of age. Currently 2,095 ...
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£20m funding for driverless car research
Eight new projects developing driverless car technology have been awarded £20m in government funding. The projects are the first to be funded from the government’s £100m Intelligent Mobility Fund. They range from developing autonomous shuttles to carry visually-impaired passengers using advanced sensors and control systems, to new simulation trials for ...
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Last year saw seismic shift in site ownership
The forecourt sector in 2015 saw the conclusion of a seismic shift in ownership that has seen oil companies divesting assets and tying purchasing independents into supply agreements, according to Steve Rodell, managing director of the retail division of property specialist Christie & Co.In the company’s latest business outlook, ’The ...
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Euro Garages doubles profits
Euro Garages turnover was up 26% to £816m for the year to July 31, according to accounts just filed at Companies House, and pre-tax profit more than doubled to £34.8m compared with £15.3m the previous year. Early in the year covered by the accounts, Euro Garages completed the acquisition of ...
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Store doubled in size at Spar site
A £300,000 expansion project at a Spar forecourt store near Bristol Airport has been completed following a co-investment scheme between owner Justin Taylor and Appleby Westward, the regional distribution company for Spar stores in the south west. The store, at Littleton Mills, near Winford, has doubled in size."The redevelopment has ...
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Lidl denies plans for fuel
Lidl’s purchase of an Esso site in Balderton, Nottinghamshire does not signal its entry into the UK forecourt market.A spokesperson for the discounter confirmed the intention was to demolish the filling station to make way for a supermarket.Last year Lidl demolished a Co-op Food Store on an adjoining site and ...
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News
chris Hunt
As I write this column, the sad unravelling of Tata Steel is taking place on our TV screens, newspapers and radio. In the day-to-day advocacy that UKPIA undertakes, we often bump into the trade associations representing the steel, ceramics, glass, cement, chemicals and other energy-intensive UK industries.All of us have ...
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News
Funding to drive charging growth
Four cities have been awarded significant funds to promote green vehicle technology after successfully bidding for a share of a £40m scheme created to support the take-up of plug-in electric cars across the UK. Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced the winners of the Go Ultra Low City Scheme, including Bristol, ...
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News
in brief
Inquiry averted MRH has avoided an inquiry into its acquisition of 78 service stations from Esso after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) accepted undertakings by the company. The CMA said it was concerned about areas of Brighton and Cambridge where MRH had acquired Esso sites and the next nearest ...
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BP renews its membership with BOSS
BP Oil UK has renewed its membership of BOSS and its Payment Watch scheme for all its company-owned retail fuel sites for this year.BP Oil UK Ltd operates more than 320 company-owned sites and has been a member of BOSS and its Payment Watch scheme since it was introduced in ...
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News
Retail margins being squeezed as price of diesel is pushed down by supermarkets
Retail margins on petrol have fallen, according to the AA, and prices have continued to fall. In its latest AA Fuel Price Report, it says: "AA research finds that during the periods of early 2014, early 2015 and late 2015, subtracting the cost of wholesale, ethanol and tax from the ...
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News
MRH acquired by US private equity firm
MRH, the biggest independent service station owner and operator in the UK, has been bought by a US private equity firm Lone Star. The deal closed on January 26 for an undisclosed sum having received approval from the European Commission under EU Merger Regulations. The accompanying statement said: "The companies’ ...
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News
£6.5m paid for a pair of forecourts
More than £6.5m has been paid for the freehold of two forecourts. Harmsworth Pooled Property Unit Trust, advised by Helix Property Advisors, has acquired the freehold investment of the petrol filling stations and convenience stores, in Hemel Hempstead and Roehampton, London SW15, from companies advised by Avignon Capital Limited and ...
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News
Firearm used in Nottingham raid
Detectives are appealing for witnesses following an armed robbery at a Nottingham service station on the evening of Thursday, 28 January, 2016. Nottinghamshire Police were called just after 6.30pm after two masked men entered the Tesco Express service station on the A610 Nuthall Road at Cinderhill. The men threatened staff ...
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NewsTwo more Essar-branded sites opened
Two further forecourt sites have transferred to the Essar brand following its debut in November at a site owned by Top 50 Indie HKS at Coalville in Leicestershire. Both are nearer the oil company’s Stanlow Refinery in Cheshire. The second site was launched in association with S & S Station ...
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Certas-owned Gulf sites raise funds for charity
Customers and employees at Gulf forecourts across Glasgow, owned by Certas Energy, donated almost £2,500 during December 2015 to Yorkhill Children’s Charity, which raises funds to support the babies, children and young people treated at the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow (formerly Yorkhill Hospital). Donating funds to Yorkhill Children’s Charity ...