All Latest News articles – Page 323
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News
Shock new figures undermine OFT findings
January’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report on the road fuel market has been seriously undermined by new market share figures for supermarkets released by the Government. They show the supermarkets have a far higher share of the road fuels market than previously admitted. The latest combined total for petrol and diesel sees an increase to 46.5% in 2012. This compares with 39% for 2012 stated in the OFT report, which gave a clean bill of health to the way the market operates. The figure of 39% was also reported for 2011 in a report by Deloitte – Study of the UK petroleum retail market. This report was commissioned and published last year by the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC), and was used by DECC as proof of the security of UK fuel supplies. The PRA said it was told the statistical data on retail fuel volumes since 2008 has recently been revised on the DECC website, after gross reporting errors were uncovered by officials. PRA chairman Brian Madderson commented: “5,000 forecourts have closed since 2000, another 175 closed last year and the independent retailers are continuing to get massacred by the aggressive discounting and below cost sales tactics by supermarkets. “There was considerable complacency evident in the Deloitte and OFT reports which assumed that supermarket volumes were levelling off and so the market was steady. However, we warned Government that the 2012 Christie study indicated that supermarkets are trying to open up to 50 new forecourts for each of the next four years.” “The data revision indicates that the average hyper sells 12 million litres per year and independents 2 million litres. Thus every new-to-industry opening by a hyper could suck up the entire fuel volume of six independent retailers in the local area and jeopardise the business of at least 10 existing forecourts every year if such expansion proceeded. This is will be bad for competition, bad for consumer choice, bad for jobs at local family firms and bad for rural communities.” Madderson added: “This re-jigging of key market information underpins our members’ real concern that the UK’s energy resilience for retail fuels is at stake. If this situation is allowed to continue, there will be an inevitable acceleration in the number of site closures to more than 300 per year. Thus there will be a severe worsening of supply resilience from fewer sites with low stockholdings. “This should ensure that our request to DECC for a round table review of the independent forecourt industry will receive the full attention of Michael Fallon MP, minister for energy, in the coming weeks.”
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Costcutter signs £35m refinancing deal
Costcutter Supermarkets Group has signed a £35m refinancing deal with Barclays. The group says the three-year term of the refinancing will support both business growth and the current transition period following the announcement in March that Costcutter Supermarkets Group has entered a strategic partnership with Palmer and Harvey for buy ...
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Manager critically injured in drive-off attack
Two people have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a forecourt manager was critically injured during a drive-off. A 19-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl were arrested in Chatham in the early hours of this morning. Lekshmanan Asokkumar, who manages the Texaco garage in West Kingsdown, Kent, was ...
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First new generation Spar branded forecourt opens
The first of a new generation of Spar-branded forecourts in the UK has opened following the development of the concept by Spar and Harvest Energy. B & M Harland, in Pickering, North Yorkshire, which is owned by retailer Geoff Harland, features Spar branding on the canopy, pumps, poll sign and ...
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Water contamination strands Morrisons customers
A Morrisons supermarket in North Wales was forced to shut down one of its unleaded petrol pumps after fuel became contaminated with water and cars which had just been refuelled broke down on the forecourt. Around a dozen motorists were stranded at the Morrisons store in Ruthin Road, Wrexham, on ...
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PRA welcomes plan to extend rural fuel rebate
The PRA has welcomed moves by the Treasury to extend the rural fuel rebate scheme. The Treasury has announced that it plans to seek permission from the European Commission to extend the scheme, which currently provides a 5 pence per litre (ppl) rebate to retailers in the Scilly Isles, the ...
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Fuel thief sent to prison
A man has been sent to prison for 12 weeks following a drive-off in Northamptonshire last month. Noel Majores, 24, was one of two men convicted for fuel theft after they drove off without paying from the BP service station on the A43 near Brackley on Tuesday, July 9. Majores ...
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Supermarket sales surge in heatwave
The July heatwave contributed to sales growth rates almost twice that achieved by the UK’s leading supermarkets during the London 2012 Games – one of last year’s peak sales periods – according to the latest retailer performance figures released by Nielsen. Aggregate sales value growth for the UK’s leading supermarkets ...
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Attempted murder charges after forecourt fire
A thirty five year old man from Devizes, Wiltshire, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of arson with intent to endanger life after a van with two occupants was set alight on a petrol station forecourt. The incident occurred at the Esso filling station ...
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Armed robbery at Total garage in Derbyshire
Two men have robbed the Total petrol station in Mickleover, Derbyshire. At around 9.50pm on Thursday, July 25, two men entered the service station, in Etwall Road. One of the men was carrying a knife. One robber jumped over the counter while the other, the armed man, took a male ...
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BAT launches e-cigarette in UK
British American Tobacco (BAT) has become the first tobacco manufacturer to launch an e-cigarette in the UK. The e-cigarette is branded Vype and will be available for sale on-line with plans to move into mainstream retail outlets from September 2013. Vype uses a nicotine e-liquid that is made in the ...
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Police hand mini cameras to vulnerable retailers
Retailers in Edinburgh who have been subjected to a series of hate crimes are to be given mini body cameras by police to capture images of their attackers. The scheme is being piloted in the north of Edinburgh, and will be rolled out to other areas if it is successful. ...
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Police CCTV van targets crime at Tesco forecourt
Police in Watford have been deploying a police CCTV van at a Tesco petrol station to deter drive-offs and detect other car crime, according to a report in the Watford Observer. The bright yellow police van has been left unmanned in the garage at Bushey for several hours a day, for more than a month, but local police refused to say why. However, staff from Tesco Express revealed that the van is there to stop motorists driving off without paying for petrol and to track motorists with false number plates and invalid tax or insurance. Deputy manager Karan Theyeagearasha said: “We’ve had loads of people come in here, fill up their tanks and drive off. It’s not a small amount of petrol either, we’re talking at least £70 a time. “Having the police presence acts as a deterrent, they’re preventing crime. If people drive in with false number plates, without insurance or valid tax, or even stolen cars they can capture them on their CCTV.” He said the visits were at random. Police would park on the forecourt, leave the van and patrol the high street. He added: “Since they’ve started doing it I’ve noticed fewer people are driving off without paying for their petrol.”
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Number planning to use franchised dealers increases
The National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) has welcomed a report showing the number of consumers planning to use a franchised dealer for servicing is increasing. The report, from motoring.co.uk, revealed that 50% of consumers over the last six months said they will used a franchised dealer for servicing, compared with ...
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Rates revamp for Northern Ireland petrol stations
Forecourt businesses in Northern Ireland are being urged to submit forms needed for the revaluation of business rates in the province. Land & Property Services (LPS) is reminding business ratepayers in Northern Ireland that time is running out to submit a Form of Return as part of the non-domestic revaluation ...
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Thief admits 21 drive-offs
A thief has admitted driving off from 21 petrol stations across the West Midlands and Staffordshire without paying over a seven-month period. Tadas Prismantas used two cars – both with the same stolen number plate – when he took fuel worth hundreds of pounds from garages across the region. The ...
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Forecourts urged to act over card charges
The PRA has welcomed a move by the EC to limit fees charged to retailers for processing debit and credit cards, but says more needs to be done, and petrol station operators can help to drive the change. The EC intends to limit the fees for processing debit card transactions ...
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MPs urge government to act over oil refining industry
MPs have urged the Government to take action to maintain the health of the UK oil refining industry. The House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee’s report on UK Oil Refining, which is published today calls for government action to address the burden of UK and EU legislative requirements ...
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Costcutter introduces contactless payment
Costcutter Supermarkets Group has become one of the first symbol operators to introduce new contactless payment technology across more than 500 of its stores. Kevin Widdrington, IT director for Costcutter Supermarkets Group, said: “This is a major achievement for Costcutter Supermarkets Group, the symbol group sector and independent retailers. Costcutter ...
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Tobacco tax evaders jailed
Two men have been jailed after being convicted of tobacco tax evasion. Graham Kay, 38, from Bolton and Soran Salih, 24, from Bury were caught moving 245 kilos of smuggled tobacco between two vans by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officers. The officers seized the tobacco and both men were ...