Petrol station operator Prem Uthayakumaran, who led a campaign to persuade Harvest Energy to release dealers from their fuel supply contracts which were thwarted by the demise of the Prax refinery, is claiming a partial victory.
On Friday, he was released from his contract for two of his four sites to be supplied by the business, after eight months of uncertainty of having to buy fuel elsewhere since Prax went into administration last June.
Uthayakumaran had rallied a group of seven other operators to take joint legal action against Harvest, which is responsible for both the Harvest Energy and Total Energies brands in the UK.
But he told Forecourt Trader that as far as he is aware just himself and one other operator in that group had been given the go ahead to find another long-term fuel supplier. That operator is The Rondell Group, which has now set up its own distribution business to collect fuel direct from Kingsbury oil terminal.
Uthayakumaran was given an extended term of 45 days to remove the Total Energies branding from his forecourt in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. Fortunately, his other Harvest-supplied site at Eastfield in North Yorkshire had not switched branding when Prax, the owner of the Lindsey oil refinery, collapsed.
He plans to switch his Broxbourne site to Texaco, which had stepped in with fuel supplies for the past six months as a short-term solution. And he hopes that his case will set a precedent for the other petrol station owners, operating around 15 forecourts between them, who he teamed up with to hold Harvest Energy to account.
Fellow Total Energies dealer Ledbury Road Services, near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, was also released from its tie with Harvest earlier this month. Oliver Arnold, who owns the business with his partner Susannah Moffat, says that he too has been given 45 days at the point of signing up a new supplier, to take down the Total Energies branding.
Unlike Uthayakumaran, the couple had paid off debt owed on fuel delivered and not paid for at the end of January, after setting up a payment plan with the debt collectors.
But other operators, including Lawford Service Station in Manningtree in Essex, and three-site business Gill Marsh Forecourts are yet to hear if they would be released from their contracts.
Uthayakumaran says that he will still keep his WhatsApp group live for the dealers to continue to support one another through a difficult situation which has gone on for eight months.
But for himself he is relieved: “My missus says I seem a lot more relaxed since getting the news,” he says. “I think they took us hostage, showing no regard whatsoever.
“The great victory for us is that we can rebrand and have extended time to do this if we need it, with no strings attached.
“We are prepared to pay for fuel sold, but they [the administrators running the Harvest business] need to get back to our solicitors and answer our questions about breach of contract.”
