An operator has bought back a site he sold 11 years ago after noticing it needed investment and finding the owners through the property agency he originally dealt with.
Riqbal Sidhu, known in the industry as Rocky, paid £1.4m for Cressing Service Station, a 1.3mlpa site in the village of the same name, near Braintree, Essex.
He is looking to spend an initial £60,000 to £70,000 on what he calls a ”mini 10-day refurbishment” of the site. Longer term, he plans a knockdown rebuild, which he hopes he will get the go ahead for to start in summer 2027, ahead of an opening in January 2028.
He says two-thirds of the space at the former Total Energies site is currently unused. He wants to move the shop to the back of the forecourt to allow room to double the number of pumps from two to four – enabling him to introduce super unleaded and Adblu on pump.
He also wants to introduce a jet wash bay, and InPost parcel lockers. And, because the site is surrounded by residential developments, is looking at 24-hour opening.
A decision on the fuel supplier will be imminent, and there are plans to change the unbranded shop to a Londis.
This time, Sidhu purchased the business, which turns over £13,000 from the shop, from a private overseas seller. He had originally bought it as a closed, repossessed site and after refurbishing it began operating there in 2013 and kept the business for a couple of years before selling it at a profit in 2015.
“I drove past the site and saw that it was looking a bit of a state, so I got in touch with the agent that I had sold it to, to see if the owner was open to selling it,” explains Sidhu. “Discussions went on for 16 to 17 months, and as you can imagine it was quite confusing for my solicitor seeing that I had bought, sold and bought the site again,” he adds.
“I would particularly like to thank my funding partner Berkeley Credit in Mayfair which was instrumental in the sale,” adds Sidhu who had to negotiate with the freeholder, and leaseholder to surrender the lease.
It is the third forecourt that Sidhu now owns in Essex. He says that he has a couple more in the pipeline due to complete in January and February next year, “a stone’s throw” from his existing outlets, Harlow Service Station, and Epping Service Station, which have Londis shops and changed to Jet after the collapse of the Prax oil refinery.
Sidhu, aged 50, has been in the forecourt industry 35 years, having started as a cashier in a part-time job after school. At the height of his forecourt ownership he had 13 sites in his portfolio back in 2013. “Over the years, I have worked at or owned more than 30 forecourts,” he says.
