Top 50 Indie operator Seevaratnam Muresh is celebrating the £195,000 relaunch of Churn Valley Services, one of three forecourts that he has taken over this year, and the first where he does not own the freehold.
Muresh has been given a 15-year lease on the Gulf site on the A45 at Colesbourne, near Cheltenham, and which is owned by the Elwes family, who are significant land owners in the area.
Most of the investment has been on the unbranded shop, which includes a sub Post Office and has been gutted. It will soon sport the Parfetts Go Local fascia, and it has been extended from 551sq ft to 673sq ft. Muresh has also introduced a new till system, CCTV and food to go.
The West Cornwall Pasty Co, and Rollover hotdogs are new to the business, joining a Tchibo coffee machine. And Muresh has plans to introduce either Fieldfare or Cook freezers, which will fit the upmarket village demographic.
He has already expanded the freezer and fresh range, and started to work with local producers, with a pre-packed line-up of meat introduced on a sale or return basis. Locally-supplied fruit and vegetables could be next, he says.
The forecourt itself – which has two islands and four pumps of premium unleaded and diesel – needed little investment apart from more lighting to make the site brighter, a steam clean, and damaged canopy sheets replaced.
Muresh is hopeful that his changes – which include cheaper fuel at the pump and longer opening hours from 6am to 10pm Monday to Saturday, and 7am to 10pm on Sunday – will lead to an increase in turnover.
He is hopeful of growing the site from a 540,000 litres a year outlet to an annual 1.5 million litres. Already, since reducing fuel prices, he has been hitting 1,800 litres a day. And he expects shop turnover to rise from £400 to £500 a day, to £1,500 to £1,600.
The signs are good. On the first day of offering hot food and trading with the longer opening hours, he sold out of West Cornwall Pasty Co hot food.
There are no other shops nearby – the nearest is a Spar with a Post Office five miles away and a Texaco forecourt a little further. And the locals, who attended the grand opening, alongside landlord Sir Henry Elwes, welcomed the increased range.
Elwes, who gave a handover speech, reminisced about how the site which has been operating since 1919, had hand winding pumps, and how he helped out on the forecourt in the 1950s. ”I know the family will never sell the site,” says Muresh, “but I was happy to take it as it forms a nice circle with my forecourts in Bristol and Gloucester”.
Muresh owns the freehold for all of his other 11 petrol filling stations – which take Texaco, Jet, and Harvest Energy branding, and are based in London, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Wales and the Midlands.
