One of the dealers which was affected by the demise of the Prax oil refinery has set up its own transport company to distribute fuel direct from an oil terminal to its own sites, and it is offering the service to others.
The Rondel Group says that it is a strategic decision to diversify into fuel distribution to give its business “a vital safeguard”, ensuring the stability and reliability of its fuel supply.
It follows significant disruption caused when Harvest Energy, which had relied on supplies from the Lindsey refinery, failed to meet its contracted delivery obligations after the Prax Group went into administration last June.
And while the business was released from its contract last Friday (February 20), eight months of disruption before this affected several of its forecourts’ supply: two Total Energies‑branded locations and a third Harvest Energy branded forecourt.
Like 10s of other dealers who have been tied to Harvest Energy contracts, the group was forced to purchase more expensive fuel on the spot market, passing increased costs onto motorists. With two of the affected sites being high‑volume locations, they frequently ran dry during the first three months of sourcing fuel elsewhere.
The group has invested £1m in establishing an in-house transport company Mapleleaf Petroleum, near Kingsbury, one of the UK’s major inland storage and distribution oil terminals.
Mapleleaf Petroleum operates four articulated trucks and tankers, supplying fuel from Certas, Essar, Phillips 66, and Murco. And its transport operation employs 17 staff, including 13 HGV drivers and a logistics co‑ordinator, with plans to add two more trucks and six additional drivers.
The Rondel Group started as a haulage business, before selling its wagons in 2019 to focus on forecourt retailing. Establishing Mapleleaf Petroleum was a natural progression for the business, says Sanjeev Lal, who is part of its management team.
The business has also rebranded two of its sites as Mapleleaf Express. It says that more sites will take the fascia as it acquires additional forecourts, and that it will make the brand available to other operators.
The Rondel Group is one of eight dealers who had been working with Prehybrid’s Prem Uthayakumaran to take legal action against Harvest Energy for refusing to release operators from their fuel contracts. Like Uthayakumaran they have now been released from their contracts.
The Rondel Group’s transport director Davinder Talwar says that other groups have also started rebranding their forecourts with their own brands and securing their fuel independently. He says that the Harvest situation has served as a “wake-up call for the industry”.
He adds: “We at Rondel are ready to assist any operator considering this move or looking for a fuel supply agreement.”
