Platinum Retail is spending £600,000 on redeveloping Hawkswood Service Station in Hailsham, East Sussex, one of two sites it bought from Pricewatch Group in the spring.
The Top 50 Indie plans a shop overhaul, to install EV charging, valeting and a three-compartment 75,000 litre tank which is suitable for higher volume deliveries than the original four much smaller units were capable of taking.
The 4,500sq ft shop, previously supplied by Nisa, will be switched to Morrisons Daily, a fascia which the business has at four sites and wants to introduce at other locations. The Power canopy will be replaced with BP branding.
One of the smaller tanks will be used for a fourth grade of fuel, and another will take red diesel to serve the local farming community. There will be two Istobal jet washes purchased outright, two EV bays – with the supplier for the charging equipment still to be decided, and eight parking spaces.
The plan is that the changes will increase fuel volume from 4.8mlpa to 5mlpa-plus. Also, with larger and fewer tanker deliveries, the shop will not only benefit from its new branding, but also from the forecourt being shut off to motorists less often. This will hopefully increase shop sales from an annual £2m to closer to £3m, says director Sej Sejpal.
The work, which began in August includes a whole shop refit, complete with a Wild Bean Café, and also a glass-front. While not a knockdown rebuild, it was “financially as painful”, says Sejpal, who plans to re-open the site on November 11.
At the time of purchasing Hawkswood Service Station, alongside a site in Storrington, West Sussex, Sejpal said that it was part of the Amersham-based business’s plans to increase its presence in the southeast of England.
