Car washing returning to Euro Garages’ forecourts, says Ilyas Munshi

EG Group is beginning to introduce car washing back onto forecourts, following changes to legislation, Ilyas Munshi, commercial director at EG Group has revealed.

He explained the strategy in an interview last week during Forecourt Trader’s Top 50 Indies webinar, during which the latest listing of the UK’s biggest independent retailers was revealed.

EG Group is currently the second biggest UK forecourt operator, after MFG, and operates 396 company owned sites in the UK. In total it owns 5,643 forecourts across 10 international markets.

Its owners Mohsin and Zuber Issa, along with TDR Capital, recently completed the acquisition of Asda; while EG Group have agreed a £750m deal to buy Asda’s forecourt business - although Ilyas was unable to discuss any of this due to the current Phase 1 review by the Competition and Markets Authority.

However, he covered many aspects of the business, including the company’s performance and learnings during the lockdown, brand partnerships, plus his thoughts on the future, electric vehicles, and car washing.

“Changes in terms of anti-slavery legislation meant a lot of hand car wash businesses closed down overnight, so there was a vacuum in terms of people being able to wash their cars,” said Ilyas. “So we’ve been working with our partners to roll out car washes. Whether rollover or jet wash facilities, we’ve started introducing them back into our forecourts.

“Something everyone felt had come to the end of life, because there was a mass of hand-car wash provision across the country government intervention, created an opportunity for forecourt operators to invest in car washes. Up and down the country, you’ll see people going back into car washing – it has become popular.

“Internationally, certain markets like Germany, we see a lot of people - a visit to the forecourt is the highlight of their week!”

To watch the webinar, follow the link. 

Download the Top 50 report here.