Darren Wilks has exited the forecourt industry with the sale of the last of his two sites: Kirkburn Service Station, in Driffield, East Yorkshire.
Wilks had owned his remaining petrol filling station for 22 years and says that he wanted to sell-up to concentrate on his “less stressful” property company. He sold his other site, Station Garage also in Driffield, last year.
“I thought that if I didn’t sell up now I would have to invest quite a lot of money to redevelop the site and then be in the industry for another 10 to 15 years,” says Wilks. “I didn’t feel that was right for me,” he adds, pointing out that a dertermining factor was the uncertainty of how the industry would change with the rise of electric vehicles.
Wilks, who was the first operator in East Yorkshire to switch to Harvest Energy in 2012, is pleased to have sold the business to Ascona, and hopes that the Top 50 Indie will invest in the rural location to secure its future, with a greater emphasis on food to go.
“The forecourt currently has a Costa coffee machine and we sold chilled pasties and sandwiches, but it could do with a franchise such as Greggs or Pret with a seating area for reps to do their work with a coffee and hot food to go,” says Wilks.
Wilks describes the Esso forecourt, on the A614 coastal route on the outskirts of Driffield, as a “biggish site” with plenty space to develop electric vehicle charging. It has AdBlue, and LPG on pump, and fuel bunkering for heavy goods vehicles. It also has a car wash, a couple of jet washes, and air, vac and water facilities, together with a laundrette machine.
Its Londis shop, around 1,000sq ft, acts as an Evri drop off point.
Despite being grateful to property specialist Christie & Co for managing the sale, Wilks says it will take a while to get used to. “It has not really sunk in yet. It is a bit surreal and is early days to come to terms with,” he says.
The acquisition takes Ascona Group one step closer to its ambition of rising from seventh place in the Top 50 Indies ranking to among the top four. Earlier this year it secured £92 million to fuel its growth plans.
Ascona Group chief executive Darren Briggs says he is “delighted ” to add Kirkburn Filling Station to his network.
“With annual fuel sales over 7 million litres and shop sales exceeding £1 million, this site presents a fantastic opportunity for our continued growth. We look forward to investing in the site, enhancing the customer offering both instore and forecourt, and continuing to serve the local community with high-quality fuel, convenience retail, and valeting services. This acquisition is part of our ongoing acquisition strategy as we strengthen our presence across the UK.”
