A BP forecourt in Colchester, which had a shop the size of a kiosk and petrol pumps and tanks decades old, is benefiting from a £2.2 million knockdown rebuild.
Ranges Service Station on Mersea Road is seeing a significant increase in both petrol and shop sales just two months after the six-month project was completed in December, says owner Mangales Waran.
The Londis fascia shop, complete with off-licence, has seen sales almost double with predictions for a turnover of more than £1 million by the end of the year. And at current volumes, fuel is set to increase from four million litres per annum (mlpa) to eight, says Waran.
The business also has the opportunity for further revenue from two and three bedroom flats being built above the shop, alongside a staff room with a kitchenette.
Clarke Construction, which carried out the work, installed two new 90,000 litre tanks with three compartments each, and 11 Tokheim pumps, offering all grades of fuel, instead of just diesel and unleaded before. There are two Adblue pumps and a standalone HGV pump.
The forecourt was levelled and landscaped and given a dozen parking spaces, including two wheelchair access bays. And there is a hand car wash business on-site which rents space from Waran.
The shop, decorated in pale grey and white and now 1,292sq ft, has Wild Bean Café self-service modular units, a three-door freezer unit and five chillers. There is also now an in-store public toilet.
Waran, who bought the site from BP in 2014, says that he is most happy with the space and modern feel. “It was a very tight shop before, and when two people were inside it was hard to move about. Now there’s very easy access in the shop as well as forecourt.”
He adds: “I knew as soon as I bought the site that I wanted to rebuild it, and when I decided to go ahead planning took a couple of years. The pumps and tanks were so old, 60 or 70 years, that maintenance contractors could not get parts for them.”
Waran, who already operates three other sites in Northampton, Aylesbury and Ilford, says that he is on the lookout for other forecourts with fuel volumes of at least 4mlpa. All of his other petrol filling stations have high volumes, with his flagship site, his first, which he bought in Northampton in 2003, boasts 20mlpa from its prime location near to J15 of the M1.
