Top 50 Indie Platinum Retail is nearing 60 sites with the acquisition of its first forecourt in the east of England: Stanton Self Serve in Suffolk.
The family-owned business, which now has 57 forecourts, was approached in February directly by the previous owners – Bernard Pont and Jack Stokes – who wanted to retire after more than 35 years of having the site.
There were several reasons that the Shell site, on a large plot of land on the busy A143 Bury Road between Bury St Edmunds and Diss, appealed to the Sejpal family.
Significantly, it is within a four-hour drive from their Amersham, Buckinghamshire base, the limit they tend to work to for new acquisitions. Also, it has a fuel volume of 5mlpa, and annual shop sales of over £1 million.
“The location and the headline numbers were very attractive for us as a business,” says operations manager Jamie Sejpal. And he adds: “It is good to add another Shell location to our portfolio bringing us to 15 with the brand.”
Most of its other sites are BP and Valero branded.
“We work with several fuel brands as Dad does not like to keep everything under one umbrella,” says Sejpal. “It’s good to see how each brand has different ideas.”
On the Stanton forecourt there are nine pumps, supplying all of the main grades of fuel, including V Power, and it has a jet wash facility.
The first major change to the Stanton forecourt will be turning the shop from a Londis to a Spar. The family will then assess how to develop the site in a year to 18 months’ time, says Sejpal. But EV charging may well be on the cards for the rural location which has plenty space available.
“There is no EV charging at the site at present, but we are looking at this for future development,” says Sejpal.
Currently, Platinum Retail is number nine in the Top 50 Indies pecking order. Most of its sites are along the A1 corridor heading north to Leeds from Amersham, with the furthest north in Kendal in the Lake District, and its furthest south at Redruth in Cornwall.
It recently expanded its presence in the southeast with the purchase of Hawkswood Service Station, and Storrington Service Stations in West Sussex from the Pricewatch Group.
While the business likes to keep acquisitions within a four-hour drive from Amersham, Sejpal says it would not rule out taking on promising sites further afield. “If the right deal comes our way, we would never say never,” he says.
