Uncertainty is not good for business. Those are words of forecourt retailer Prem Uthayakumaran, director at Prehybrid Ltd which has four sites – one of which is supplied with fuel by Total. Or at least it was until the Prax Group went into administration.
Uthayakumaran told Forecourt Trader: “We get ‘updates’ from our Harvest dealer manager but they are not really updates, all they say is to sit tight. I know they don’t know what’s going on but it really is no help to us.”
Uthayakumaran says he is very grateful to Southern Energy aka Pricewatch for supplying his Total site in the meantime. “We’re very lucky to have their help. They are trying their best to help us out but it leaves us stretched in terms of cash flow and has a huge knock-on effect across the business.”
His Total site was dry for half a day last Thursday and he says he must have lost sales of at least 3,000 litres of fuel.
“The impact of our site being dry is huge. There is so much competition out there and I’m worried that customers will see we are out of fuel and not come back.”
Prax has been contacted for comment.
