Forecourt operator Ben Lawrence is about to start a trial of the Praveen Kumar Indian takeaway concept, which if successful could be introduced in his three petrol filling stations.
His first site to offer what is an extension to the frozen ready-meals range stocked by around 150 forecourts, is the Lawrence family’s convenience store in Beccles, in Suffolk.
It is one of the larger stores in the four-site business and it has freezer space and a food prep area. Similarly, its Sheringham forecourt on the Norfolk coast, which currently has a Rollover, and Country Choice ovens, is set up to offer the meals to go, and is likely to be the next in the Lawrences’ network to follow.
The idea is that the takeaway meals maintain customer interest in food to go after the industry-wide 2pm lull, igniting sales in the evening and offering the opportunity for retailers to introduce bundle deals with off-licence products and desserts, for example, as well as the possibility of a delivery service.
The meals, delivered direct to store are microwaved from frozen, while items like onion bhajis, samosas and pakoras are heated in the oven, or an air fryer. Operators that have a Country Choice set-up are “90% there” in terms of having a food prep area, and the cooking and freezer facilities in place to offer the takeaway service, says founder of the Indian meal brand of the same name, Praveen Kumar.
He charges a £2,000 fee for marketing – including a 10-mile radius Royal Mail menu mail drop (usually to around 10,000 households), an A-board to advertise on the forecourt, and social media outreach. Plus, participating retailers will be expected to invest another £4,000 in stock.
Highland Fuels’ Ravenspark Filling Station in Irvine, Scotland, which was the first forecourt to introduce the Praveen Kumar Takeaway in April, has also invested in digital signage above its food to go counter which changes food to go brands throughout the day.
Fellow forecourt operator Pricewatch Group is also considering introducing the takeaway meals at two of its sites, at Wivelsfield in East Sussex and its Trinity location in Eastbourne. General manager Tom Buckley estimates it will cost him around £1,500 to £2,000 to prepare for the takeaways, with kitchens already in place.
“We plan to open four evenings a week to start with and after delivery app fees there is a 45% margin. We will market this service as Praveen Kumar on the delivery apps rather than Morrisons Daily, to use his great name and story,” he says.
Kumar says that he is also talking to a national forecourt chain to introduce a shorter menu of takeaways at smaller stores under 1,000sq ft.
Lawrences Garages hopes that with its Beccles and Sheringham sites being in tourist hotspots, the Praveen Kumar takeaway concept will be popular with self-catering holidaymakers, says the operator’s area manager Aaron Hague. And further down the line the business would consider partnering with a delivery platform such as Just Eat, to take on local takeaway businesses.
Kumar says that he already has arrangements in place for operators wanting to sell the takeaways through Just Eat and Snappy Shopper.
He projects that the Beccles site will turn over £2,500 to £3,500 a month on the takeaways, and that Sheringham is more likely to hit £3,000 to £5,000 a month. The Sheringham forecourt will have 16 items on its menu – including starters, mains and sides – with Kumar suggesting a £9.95 rrp for a 475g curry.
The trick says Lawrences Garages’ Hague is balancing the extra workload between existing employees, to avoid increasing staff costs. “We have three people on at the start of the dinner rush. We’re open till 10pm and there are always two members of staff working, so we are hoping to absorb the work into our existing staff scheduling,” he says.
If all goes to plan the business’s forecourts in Harleston in Norfolk and in Sholing, Southampton, in will also stock the takeaways. “It is all about growing additional sales for our sites,” says Hague. “We might add in a dine in for two type offer, or bundle the takeway meals with beer and bottles of wine,” says Hague. “Takeaways give us an additional revenue stream.”
