Four site operator Danny Ahmed has decided on Morrisons Daily and Murco as his template for further expansion, with six further forecourts in his plans by 2030, and another site upgrade at the planning stages this month.
Ahmed, the son-in-law of the late Arshad Iqbal of Falcon Group fame, re-launched Tower Garage, in Hednesford, Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, with the duo of brands on Friday. And he has been impressed with the support from both suppliers, and how they have gone down with the locals.
Value pricing in both the 2,400sq ft store, and fuel being the cheapest for five miles at 127p a litre for unleaded and 135p a litre for diesel has been a big attraction, says Ahmed. And generous initiatives on the day of opening including every tenth customer getting their fuel for free, and giveaway curry, helped to create a stir.
“We did 8,000 litres, and over £3,000 in the shop on the first day, and we only opened the door at 10am and did not do much marketing just in case things went wrong,” says Ahmed. The response has been unbelievable. Everyone in the area is raving about the pricing.”
He is optimistic that the figures, boosted by the site now being 24 hours, indicate that the store will increase from a turnover of a few hundred pounds a week under its previous ownership when it was an unbranded 12m2 kiosk, to £60,000 a week. And he is confident with more housing being built in the area that fuel volume will increase from around 500,000 litres a year, to closer to 4.5 million.
Ahmed acquired a 15-year lease on the former Pace station together with a servicing and MOT business on site last autumn, and he is hopeful of taking over the freehold after. The new shop has a Morrisons Daily bakery selling hot food including pizza, sausage rolls, hotdogs and burgers. And it boasts an ISqueeze pineapple cubing machine and fresh orange juice dispenser.
The changes he has made so far have been significant, costing more than three times the original £250,000 anticipated. And planning issues with Staffordshire County Council set the project back by three months, while delaying the introduction of two jet washes, solar panels and two electric car chargepoints.
Unexpectedly, the site was required to replace 58-year-old tanks, which Ahmed had hoped could be re-lined. He replaced three small, 13,000, 8,000 and 7,000 litre tanks with two 50,000 litre tanks for unleaded and diesel. Murco carried out work on the canopy, raising it from 3.8m to 5.2m, rebranding it, and adding a digital dispay for fuel so that no pole sign is needed. It also added LED lights and CCTV cameras, and the three fuel pumps, which have 12 hoses, were refurbished.
He is delighted with the outcome. “Morrisons Daily is on a different level. I originally decided to move to them as I became friends with Richard Crocker and when he moved from Costcutter to Morrisons I followed him. I can’t fault them. They laid out the shop, stocked the shelves and trained staff on food safety and Challenge 25.
“They also allow customers to use the Morrisons loyalty card in the shop, and we have an account so that if we run out of milk, strawberries, or whatever, we can buy items from their supermarkets at wholesale prices. It is game changing.”
He adds that despite local opposition at the beginning of the planning process he feels he has won over the community, with little touches such as stocking hay on the forecourt for customers with horses, and also by increasing the pet food bay from 1m to 2m, because of the site’s pet loving demographic.
“We are showing our neighbours that we are not here to disrupt”, says Ahmed, “rather to offer them a convenient and very enjoyable place to shop.”
Only last month Ahmed completed a £150,000 refit of the shop at Crankhall Service Station, in Wednesbury. The Crankhall Lane site operates under the Murco and Select & Save brands. With another Morrisons Daily on the doorstep he could not access the grocery brand for this site.
The complete refit by Select & Save, included new shelving, chillers, flooring, ceiling, lighting, and included the installation of Ahmed’s signature fresh pineapple chunks and squeezed orange machines.
However, he has just applied for planning permission to develop his Linthouse Lane Service Station in Wolverhampton, with plans to have the Morrison Daily/Murco combination. This was a freehold purchase for Ahmed, who bought the site in July from Dave Watford, who had owned it for 60 years and wanted to retire.
An £800,000 investment earmarked for this project will include extending the shop to 2,200sq ft, and replacing five small tanks with two 50,000 litre tanks, and one 35,000 litre unit for the four grades of fuel. Ahmed hopes to complete the work by November. Again an MOT and servicing workshop will continue to be leased out at this location.
And Ahmed has ambitions to increase fuel volume here from around 650,000 litres to four million litres per year.
Ahmed bought his first site 14 years ago: Holloway Head Service Station in Birmingham City Centre, which boasts a boutique hotel above the shop. He says that he is on track to meet his target of 10 sites in four years, thanks to his wife Rahila now being on board.
“Rahila now has more time with our kids now being aged four, eight and nine. Her father always said that he had diesel running through his body not blood, and I think that she is the same,” says Ahmed.
