Top 50 Indie JP&S Services is investing £750,000 developing a forecourt it bought this summer near to Brighton on the A259 coast road.
The former Texaco site at Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex, is the 16th for the Wembley-based business which operates around London and the Home Counties.
Director Yogan Yoganathan says that he wanted to buy the site primarily because of its potential, being located on the busy thoroughfare between Brighton and Worthing, and with no other petrol stations withon half a dozen miles. He was also attracted by the size and flexibility of the shape of the 86,000 sq ft site.
Yogan paid £1.2 million for the business, which he plans to run as a Jet and Londis forecourt, and is the furthest south in his Jet network.
He is replacing the canopy and the fuel pumps, and relining the tanks. He is installing four pumps each with eight nozzles, with premium and standard unleaded petrol and diesel.
And the 600 sq ft shop, which has an off-licence, is being gutted to include a new roof, fittings and chiller and freezer cabinets. A Costa machine is being replaced with Tchibo self-serve coffee, and he is introducing Country Choice Bake & Bite food to go.
Yogan is hopeful that the changes will see him increase fuel volume from around the three million litres the site was hitting annually before it closed around a year ago, to around 4.5 million to five million litres. And he is hopeful of increasing the shop’s turnover from around £12,500 a week before, to closer to £20,000.
Pricing fuel competitively in the area will contribute to the growth, he adds. “It is an extremely busy road and I have a really good deal with Jet which will give me the flexibility to run decent prices,” says Yogan.
Within a year of opening next January, Yogan will consider extending the store by a third, and he is planning on replacing an old laundry machine on the forecourt with either electric vehicle charging or one or two jet washes.
“I want to get the site open before making these later changes which I can do while it is operating,” says Yogan. “The forecourt is in a fantastic area and it has a lot of potential to grow sales.”
