Top 50 Indie Hockenhull Garages is looking to streamline its forecourt network to raise money for developing its remaining sites, and to diversify into standalone valeting centres, and high street foodservice outlets.
Managing director Joe Hockenhull, who runs the business with his father Peter, says that the Leicester-based business is considering selling three of its nine sites – Shell St Peters Road Service Station in Leicester, and two in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
That will leave them with four forecourts to manage, and another two which are leased out, including one most recently to new forecourt operator Stuart Riding.
Joe Hockenhull said that lessons learned during the pandemic – when underperforming businesses were put under pressure by their banks – mean that the forecourt operator wants to raise cash and operate loan free.
“Nothing is firmed up yet, but we are considering selling off sites,” says Hockenhull. “We want to be free of ties from the bank so that we have no liabilities or bank loans.
“We don’t want to be in the position that we were in during lockdown when sales were down and the bank could have come in and done what it wanted. Now we want to solely fund things ourselves and stop the acquisition trail.”
With petrol retailing holding an element of the unknown as electric vehicles grow in prominence, the business is looking for plots of land to build jet wash centres with a café. “Valeting has gone mad and we see this as a real opportunity,” says Hockenhull, who is also interested in opening standalone franchised cafes.
Also, in two weeks’ time the business – number 35 in the Top 50 Indies ranking – will start work on the knockdown rebuild of its BP Croft Hill forecourt in Leicester. Costing nearly £2 million, Hockenhull says that this 20-week project, which is expected to be complete mid July, is fully self-funded.
After this project the Hockenhulls will turn their attention to a knockdown rebuild of their BP Saffron Service Station, also in the East Midlands city, in the next couple of years.
“The BP Saffron site has not been touched since 2002. It’s where our offices are and is our biggest, and it will be such a busy site in terms of volume, with a Subway and valeting,” says Hockenhull.
The rebuilt sites will, like the Hockenhulls’ award-winning The Stage forecourt in Leicester, have an oval-shaped canopy as a signature look which will be rolled out as redevelopment work is completed.
At BP Croft Hill the canopy will have solar panels, and two charging bays, as a condition of the planning permission being granted. There will be an HGV lane, and six “state of the art” pumps which will have digital media displays, and an AdBlue nozzle.
And there is a valeting area included with two air, vacuum and water towers.
For the Spar shop, which will have a sedum planted roof and modern glass front, Hockenhull says he is taking inspiration from what Blakemore has achieved with EG On The Move. It will have a Subway and Starbucks, and most likely a Rollover display, and a frozen drinks brand. He hopes to get further ideas from a visit to next month’s National Convenience Show at the NEC in Birmingham.
“BP Croft benefits from having neighbouring villages and being on the B4114 road to Coventry it has lots of transient traffic and truckers visiting the site,” he says. “This project is the start of us refining our current forecourt portfolio to a network of quality sites.”
