JP&S Services owner Visvanathan Yoganathan is a big step closer to his aim of hitting 30 sites by the time he retires, having exchanged contracts on six Appleby Westward forecourts in the southwest of England.
Speaking at the launch of his latest redeveloped site in Greater London this week, the Top 50 Indie operator said that he hoped to exchange on the Spar wholesaler’s sites by the end of this month.
This will bring him to 21 petrol stations, with Jet Woodford Green re-opening this Wednesday (July 1) after a £1.7m forecourt and shop upgrade.
Yoganathan’s son Priyanth told Forecourt Trader that the Appleby Westward sites – in Devon and Cornwall – are in need of investment. He intends to run Wembley-based JP&S with his brother Sukanth, when their father is anticipated to exit the company in the next couple of years.
“We want to develop our acquisitions, and are not in the business of flipping sites and selling them on,” said Priyanth. “We are here for the long haul.”
He added that unlike JP&S’s other forecourts, the Appleby Westward portfolio has a greater emphasis on shop sales – with large stores typically turning over £30,000 to £40,000 a week. Meanwhile, the sites’ fuel volume, he said, is around 1-2mlpa, compared with an average of 6mlpa across JP&S’s 15 forecourts.
One “big hitter” Appleby Westward site, he added, has a higher turnover of fuel at 4mlpa: The Grove BP station in Dorchester. Other sites are: East Charleton near Kingsbridge, Watcombe in Torquay, Newtown near Penzance, Maiden Newton Services in Dorchester, and Ipplepen Spar in Newton Abbot.
The plan is to change the shop fascia from Spar, to Budgens at four sites, and to Londis at two. Existing fuel brands, Texaco and BP, will remain in place for now.
The news follows wholesaler AF Blakemore acquiring 71 company-owned Spar convenience stores from Appleby Westward in a £7m deal which included the supply of independent Spar-supplied shops, and the logistics assets and licence for Spar in the southwest of England.
Appleby Westward owner Spar Group said last year that it was looking to divest its UK business as it sought to prioritise investment in its core markets of South Africa and Ireland.
JP&S is also hoping to complete on another site in Kennington, London, this month too. It is also about to start work on a knockdown rebuild that has now been given planning permission in Baldock, Hertfordshire.
Jet Woodford Green, formerly owned by the Clark family for three generations, was closed for six months for the shop to be made three times bigger, getting rid of a former MOT garage on the site. A new canopy, pumps, pipework, interceptor and drainage, was installed and the existing tanks were relined.
“I must commend our contractors Building Innovations [for the shop], and MDM Service [for the forecourt] who worked through the extreme cold and then hot weather to complete the build,” says Priyanth.
He hopes that the re-development will boost fuel volume from 3.5mlpa pre-refurbishment, to at least 6mlpa, and shop turnover to a minimum of £30,000 a week.
Other changes included switching to a 24-hour Budgens, increasing the number of fuel hoses from eight to 20, and introducing Bake & Bite hot food and Smokin’ Bean coffee.
Completing the site in coming weeks will be the introduction of a single snow foam/ceramic HD wax coating jet wash, and a replacement rollover car wash.
