Award-winning forecourt operator Parkfoot Garage plans to launch an own-label ‘Dine In’ style meal deal, following the success of its oven-ready dishes made on site.
Since their launch this summer, the BP/Spar outlet, owned by David Charman, has been selling a daily 80 to 100 of its own ready-meals prepared in the kitchen at the West Malling, Kent petrol filling station.
Using ingredients from its butcher’s counter, it has developed 30 recipes in tin trays. Around 20 are on sale at any time, retailing from £4 for Barbecue Burnt Ends marinated pork chunks to £8 for one of the favourites, Hunter’s Chicken with two fillets.
Other popular lines include meatballs in a tomato sauce, Shawarma Chicken, cottage pie, lasagne and stir fries, including a black garlic fillet steak and jerk chicken option. The meals have a shelf-life of between three to five days. There is also a line-up of side dishes including potato wedges, potato skins, and sweetcorn.
For winter, it is developing a slow-cooked range which will have been pre-cooked to take the time hassle away for customers who will heat through the winter warmers. This range which should be in place in the next four to eight weeks will include lamb shanks, racks and ribs.
Product development managers Emma Gluck and Matt Westguard are also putting together a range of puddings – traditional recipes such as Eton Mess, cheesecakes and lemon meringue pies.
This will make it possible for the business to offer customers an M&S-style ‘Dine In’ type package with a main side and pudding for an anticipated £12 to £15 for two, which Emma predicts will do well at weekends and for special occasions such as Valentine’s Day.
“We’ve got so much in the pipeline,” says Emma, who set about building a range with her colleague Matt Westguard having experimented with homemade dishes on the in-store butchery counter, and slowly introducing the lines into the main shop chillers.
The colleagues who formerly worked on the butcher’s counter are working closely with a new recruit for the kitchen. And Emma says that they have collaborated on the menu with Dalziel, using many Verstagen marinades, rubs and spice blends that the company supplies.
Parkfoot Garage, which won Forecourt Trader’s customer service award last month, is known for being a trailblazer in the forecourt world. It was one of the first petrol filling stations to introduce an instore butcher’s counter and it will be interesting to see what further developments it has up its sleeve in its planned store refit.
