Top 50 independent Karan Retail is on the march in Scotland with its fourth site opening north of the border this month and its sights set on finding several more next year.
Its latest acquisition - the 36th for the business - is nine miles from Inverness in the village of Muir of Ord. It has a 2,000sq ft shop and Esso fuel, with six fuel pumps, a jet wash, tyre air machine, and vacuum cleaner.
Karan Retail’s operations manager Visnu Kumaranisanthan says that he is considering switching the Spar shop to the Premier fascia, to offer greater value to customers, he says, with the symbol group’s “value pricing”. And he plans to keep a strong emphasis on locally supplied meat, vegetables and bakery lines which are popular with neighbourhood customers.
Visnu is also considering adding to the store’s food to go offering, which includes hot items such as fresh bacon butties and coffee and was introduced in a shop refit a couple of years ago. New additions might include a slush machine and hot dogs.
And on the forecourt, Visnu believes that the rural site might benefit from two electric vehicle chargepoints. He is also in discussions about introducing HVO fuel.
Karan Retail, ranked at number 11 in Forecourt Trader’s latest Top 50 Indies listing earlier this year, moved into Scotland in April 2023 with an award winning site at Freuchie, near Dundee.
Since then, as well as Muir of Ord, it has quickly picked up forecourts in Inverness, and in Alexandria, near Dumbarton, attracted Visnu says by less intense competition than the rest of the UK, and cheaper property.
“We are now on the look out for further sites in Scotland to acquire and are open-minded on how they might look, so long as they are performing well and have potential to develop,” he says.
