Roadside Real Estate, the property business which is acquiring Gardner Retail, is redefining itself as a major new forecourt operator with more petrol station group takeovers on the way.
David Phillpot, who joined the Abingdon, Oxfordshire-based business from BP last November, says: “We haven’t come here to buy and operate a few sites. We are here to be a significant player in the forecourt market, and are in live discussions with other operators.
”We are really open to opportunities, and if the right business with the right potential comes up we will be there.”
He adds: “We believe there is room for another big play in this market. There has been lots of consolidation in recent years, and we can see there will be further consolidation. We are looking for the right opportunities to build on our purchase of Gardner Retail and there will be more to come. We have got very big aspirations and goals.”
When announcing the Gardner deal in December, Roadside Real Estate described it as the “first of several near-term opportunities” it is evaluating in line with its ”stated strategy of building a scalable petrol forecourt and convenience retail business”.
The aim is to have a nationwide network of forecourt hubs with numerous services for customers: post offices, food to go, laundry, and parcel lockers. “We see our sites as neighbourhood hubs with customers coming to us for multiple things. We want to be more than a provider of fuel and electricity,” says Phillpot.
“The biggest thing for us is to add value with food to go, local food and ancillary services such as parcel lockers and laundry: these things are critical. We want to add value to the sites we are buying by adding customer solutions.”
The Gardner Retail acquisition, expected to be complete by February 25, will give the public quoted company six sites in the south west of England. Last summer the business also bought a former Sainsbury’s site in Coventry. The West Midlands outlet is due to reopen next summer, but Phillpot says no decision has been made on the shop or fuel brand to be introduced there.
With Clive Gardner and his family having invested extensively in the forecourts, Phillpot says it will be business as usual at the sites, with the staff staying in place. And although Clive Gardner’s children Emma and Ashton, who ran the day-to-day operations, will be leaving they will help with the transition to Roadside Real Estate.
“It is a brilliant business to bring in with fantastic locations and people, and we don’t intend to tear up what has been built by Clive and his family,” says Phillpot.
“The people are one of the biggest assets and why we bought the business. We are inheriting a brilliant team at Gardner, with some of the store managers with 10-year tenures. And with the Gardner sites being really well invested, it will be an evolution, not a revolution,” says Phillpot who has identified local products as an area to develop at the Gardner sites.
Phillpot is one of seven members in the leadership team of the publicly quoted company, led by chief executive Charles Dickson. Phillpot, who has 25 years’ experience in food retailing, was previously convenience trading director, Europe at BP. He had joined the oil giant from Marks & Spencer, where he was promoted from a buyer on its graduate scheme, to franchise director.
Roadside Real Estate’s non-executive chairman Steve Carson also has lots of retail experience, previously holding senior leadership roles at Sainsbury’s, Argos and Holland & Barrett. And its chief financial officer Doug Benzie has worked at Pret A Manger as group financial controller.
Phillpot says that the experience and agility of the small team will be instrumental to Roadside Real Estate’s plans of growing quickly. “We have the expertise and can move at pace. We know what works and being an agile, small team can make quick decisions.”
