Top 50 Indie Highway Stops is relaunching its Lye Service Station, with the operator’s second Fireaway pizza concession, a couple of pay at pump terminals, and plans for electric vehicle charging and improved valeting in the new year.
The BP forecourt, at Stourbridge in the West Midlands, is its second site to be fitted with solar panels, on the shop and canopy, a move that the 14-site operator predicts will save it a third of that location’s energy costs.
Also, the Londis shop has been more than doubled in size to around 1,000sq ft, and includes a Wild Bean Café micromart and coffee offer. Customer parking has been increased to half a dozen bays, and there is also a customer toilet.
Operations director Sellarajan Gunalan, known as Guna, hopes that the additional foodservice brands, which will benefit from indoor seating, will appeal to a wider demographic.
“The site has always overtraded for the size of the shop and so increasing the retail space is so important to us,” says Guna. ”We are also now focussing on developing two quality food offers with Wild Bean Café and Fireaway which we think will target a younger foot traffic ‘eat in’ demographic, as well as servicing our busy vehicular trade keen to get a good value tasty snack on the move.”
Also, the business plans to develop “a significant” home delivery business with Fireaway, which it was first to industry with when it introduced the brand at its Gravesend refit this summer. “We are very excited to see how Wild Bean works alongside Fireaway, and it allows us to cater to a very wide range of tastes both for food to eat on site as well as for takeaway and deliveries,” adds Guna.
Installing two electric vehicle charging bays – the first time the business will have purchased the chargepoints outright – will also widen the customer pool.
And an enclosed twin bay valeting hub using the latest jet washing equipment from Electrajet – is also hoped to increase footfall. This will be introduced in January, with contactless and token payment, together with the company’s own Stop & Super Wash branding and a vac and fragrance unit, replacing an old rollover carwash and jet wash.
Also, customers wanting fast fuelling will be able to pay at pump at two terminals, the second of Highway Stops’ redevelopments to feature this technology.
Director Tony Head says that the business was mindful of the various “use occasions”, which customers will be visiting the site for.
“We know that some customers appreciate speed of service, while others want to have a coffee and catch up on e-mails,” he says.
“We want to offer a quick, welcoming, clean service, and have the products in stock which customers now expect.
“Valeting has been good for us this year and we are learning and experimenting all the time.”
The business – which also has charging at its site in Astwick, Bedfordshire, where it has opted for BP Pulse as the brand – is still liaising with the Distribution Network Operator (DNO) to determine the appropriate charger size.
But says Tony the business is confident of its EV plans going ahead. “We are fully committed to it and have a clear target on sales and margin when we get it installed.
“Again, it’s all about customer service, shelter from the weather, ease of payment and making sure the system is working.”
Tony is also excited to be introducing solar at Lye Service Station. “We have seen early success with solar and it just made good sense to do this when we were on site,” he says. “We just can’t see anything but increased demand for electricity and we think solar here should reduce our energy bills by around 30%.”
The work carried out by principal contractor Clarkes Construction, and project manager Jennings Design, comes after a development at its site in Girton, Cambridgeshire, and others will follow for the Wembley-based business, says Tony.
“We always have a philosophy of investing for growth, and we have a strong balance sheet and are looking to expand with new sites and to make our existing sites future-proof.”
