Anthony and Paul Salvidge may have announced last week a “bitter/sweet” divestment of five of their 10 forecourts, but the brothers say they are far from done with the petrol station industry.
They have development plans for the five Sussex sites which remain in their ownership, and insist that “you should not be surprised” if their Pricewatch Group business builds back to 10 forecourts in the next few years.
This could see them look at properties in the Midlands or elsewhere a couple of hours drive beyond their Sussex heartland, with their remaining forecourts at Bexhill, Trinity Eastbourne, Bolney, Selmeston and Wivelsfield.
A diversification into valeting centres and car dealerships might even be on the cards, as the business aims to spread the risk of its investments. The business last year opened its second standalone Morrisons Daily convenience store in Tunbridge Wells, following its addition of a Morrisons Daily convenience store in Horsham 18 months ago.
The brothers are enthusiastic about the auto trade. They met and recruited their now Pricewatch Group general manager Tom Buckley having bought cars from him when he worked in a BMW and Mercedes dealership. And Buckley admits to having enjoyed the “buzz of selling cars”.
The brothers are also planning to invest in their Shoreham fuel distribution operation – which is a reason they wanted to free up some funds. “That’s the business that we really want to continue to expand, and some of this money will be useful to do so,” says Anthony Salvidge.
Already supplying hundreds of thousands of domestic, agricultural and commercial customers in the south of England with kerosene, gas oil, diesel, marine fuels and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), the business is extending its road tanker fleet from 20 to 30 in the next few years.
It is also poised to tap into any interest from fellow forecourt operators wanting to put HVO on pump, having doubled its storage capacity for this fuel and identifying it as a major solution in de-carbonising road transport.
The brothers insist they will continue investing in their remaining five Gulf and BP sites, which all have Morrisons Daily shop fascias. “Now they are all branded and have really good shops we are finding the sites more exciting, and are always looking at new ideas,” says Anthony Salvidge.
Pricewatch Group’s Wivelsfield forecourt – one of four it now owns supplied by Gulf – has already been identified for further development in the coming months, although Salvidge is tight-lipped about the plans.
The site near Haywards Heath was relaunched last April after a full refurbishment and has since been fitted with a couple of jet washes, which have been doing well, says Salvidge, and may be expanded on.
Playing down the sell-off as “vanilla news”, Salvidge says the transactions, at a time of great demand for forecourts, were aimed at lowering the company’s gearing, to invest in other areas and to “put the business on a more surer footing in an uncertain world”.
He adds: “We all thought interest rates would come down, and now we are not so sure. There’s a cost to gearing and what [President] Donald {Trump] does next in the US all comes across here with the ripple effect.”
Salvidge says: “It’s as simple as there sometimes being a good time to sell. We have not turned our back on retail. We still have five sites which we are still investing in, and I daresay that we will end up with 10 again over the next few years, probably on a leasehold basis.”
He insists the prices paid for the divested sites – Clayhill, Eastbourne, Horam, Hawkswood and Storrington – from three buyers reflected the level of investment in recent years.
“These are good assets, and it’s a sector that is performing well despite all the geo politics, sustainability issues, and all of the other things. They are good businesses rain or shine, at the end of the day, and we would have been happy to have kept them if we hadn’t achieved the prices we placed on them,” he says.
“I have mixed feelings to be honest about selling the five sites, but it brings us other opportunities. You’ve got to take emotion out sometimes when it feels like the world is on fire and you have just got to protect yourself.”
