Park Garage Group (PGG) unveiled its second EV charging hub, complete with deliver-to-car food ordering, and loyalty app, while hosting the second On The Road With Forecourt Trader event last week.
The Top 50 Indie has introduced two outdoor food ordering kiosks next to its chargepoints at its flagship forecourt in Rushden, Northamptonshire, so that motorists can order its in-house Bakery 79 food to go while charging their cars.
Initially, customers will be able to download a QR code and order food in their car, but the next step will be providing motorists with touchscreen ordering straight from the digital screens, said directors Hemant and Manoj Tandon.
PGG prides itself on introducing industry-leading Park & Charge branded hubs. The Rushden site has a four-bay covered run of two double-sided ultra-fast 480kW chargers.
The installation features a canopy with lighting, and the price of charging – currently at 75p per kWh– displayed on the side.
Three weeks in and the site is selling 10 megawatts of electricity a month, which compares to 30 megawatts at Blackpool, its first location to install EV charging in autumn last year with three 480kW chargers.
And now the third-generation family business plans to roll out the high spec offering to five more sites out of its network of 80: at Mogador in Surrey, Maidstone in Kent, Thinford in County Durham, Sevenoaks in Kent, and Forfar in Scotland.
The new click and collect food ordering initiative, which is designed to gain business from EV drivers who might not otherwise have purchased from the shop, was revealed at the morning event, sponsored by AKN Build, and vape product supplier Phoenix 2 Retail.
The behind the scenes tour was attended by 16 guests representing forecourt operators with 1,550 sites between them, and including industry heavyweights MFG, EG On The Move, Ascona, Platinum Retail, and Sterling Retail.
Also new for the site was a Spotless Water machine. PGG is connecting the equipment, which dispensers purified water, to its jet washers to enable streak-free car washing.
During the tour, Park Garage Group also showed attendees the food production area where it prepares food supplied by Spar wholesaler AF Blakemore to sell under its Bakery 79 brand.
After switching 12 of its sites from Greggs to its 1970s inspired brown and orange own-brand, sales initially fell 25%, but now that figure has closed to around a 1-2% reduction at many of the locations. The loyalty app – downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store – is expected to attract more sales, offering the missing piece in the Bakery 79 offer, says PGG.
Another benefit is not having to pay Greggs 8.5% of every transaction, and to have the flexibility of adapting offers and the range to suit the forecourt environment. Innovation includes the £4.50 breakfast bowls, now one of Bakery 79’s top sellers.
Park Garage Group, which estimates that 5% of Bakery 79 sales at Rushden come from deliveries with Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber, now plans to roll-out the concept on a franchise agreement with other forecourt operators. It will also go live with the brand at its Mogador site next month, bringing the Bakery 79 network up to 15 locations.
Park Garage Group also shared insights into its extensive Park & Vape display. PGG head of operations Ian Cawley shared how putting vaping products behind doors reduced theft, but led to a bigger reduction in sales.
“We were effectively stealing from ourselves, and we decided to take the hit of £500 a month in stolen products, rather than seeing a sales reduction of £2,000 to £3,000 a week with the doors, and so we took the doors away,” said Cawley.
He explained that the business has been working with its supplier Phoenix 2 Retail to recover lost sales since the ban on disposable vape products. Initially turnover on vaping products reduced from 11% of the business’s total shop income to 6% after the ban, but that figure is now back up to 9%.
“The last two months we have made a big effort to change the range, with an emphasis on big puff devices, pod products and pouches,” he says. Now vaping brings in £10,000 a week in sales at Rushden, representing 25% of this shop’s turnover.
Tom Power senior national account manager at PGG’s supplier Phoenix 2 Retail said that the removal of disposable vapes, which meant that 80% of the value of the vaping category needed to be replaced, had been “chaotic for the industry”.
