Berkeley Service Station, which was one of the rare high volume forecourts without a major fuel brand contract, has seen a 25% uplift in fuel and shop sales since converting to Esso six weeks ago.
Sammi Sealey, who runs the 7mlpa petrol station founded by her father Mike on the A38 in Berkeley Heath, Gloucestershire in 1979, decided to switch from its Sea Fuels canopy to a major fuel brand after the conflict in Iran made buying petrol and diesel on the spot market untenable.
But she also attributes the success to a decision to shift from a Mace fascia to her own Sealey’s Local Shop Fuel & Flavour signage, a brand she had already established with a hot and cold food to go range made on-site.
The rise in the price of fuel, prompted by the Iran war, was the catalyst for to abandon her previous model of spot buying on the open wholesale market.
“I always like to try to make between 3p to 10p a litre – with 3p obviously being in a really bad time,” explains Sealey. “When the war happened, we were making half a pence a litre, and we couldn’t even pay the bills, with 6p to 8p per litre being the sweet spot for the business,” she adds.
Like many retailers, she has had to put up with unfounded criticism over soaring pump prices.
“It got to the point where I thought I want to close my petrol pumps off,” says Sealey, who claims her team of 22 staff faced daily abuse. “The social media aspect of it was crazy, saying that we were profiteering, and that was not the case at all.”
She did her bit to counter the accusations, doing an interview with her local BBC station, explaining how forecourt operators were simply at the mercy of rising global oil prices.
While the past few weeks have seen a marked improvement in Berkeley Service Station’s performance, Sealey has been on a seven-year mission to transform the family concern.
Leaving behind the prospect of a nursing career to take the reins of the business, aged just 23, she has been turning the location into a destination site. Part of her strategy has been developing her own eat-now offer, which meant extending the kitchen to add extra warehouse and more chiller space and dedicating at least two of her team to the section.
The range includes homemade pizza, overnight oats, salad bowls, burgers, cheese slices and sandwiches: an offering which she plans to supply to other outlets. And this month she started offering a pre-ordering service in which customers can phone ahead before 9.30am their breakfast, and lunchtime choices, which will be ready upon arrival.
“I wanted fresh food, somewhere where you can come for a New Yorker roast beef/pastrami sandwich, and watermelon slices,” says Sealey. “My pet hate is when you arrive at a petrol station and see sandwiches with curled up edges.”
She has also reformatted the shop, adding a Lavazza coffee machine and a Rollover hot food cabinet. Reflecting the forecourt’s rural location she has supported local businesses, taking meat – such as rump steak, minced beef and chops – from a local butcher. Fresh cakes and brownies come from Jane’s Pantry in Gloucester.
Backed by her father, who oversees the general maintenance of the site, Sealey has been stamping her influence on the forecourt itself. It offers four fuel grades from 14 nozzles, alongside two nozzles for HGVs. Recent changes include opening 24 hours, increasing from one to two laundry machines, and introducing a dog wash which she says “does really well”, turning over between £300 to £500 a month.
InPost and Yeep! parcel lockers have also been introduced, and she hopes that Royal Mail and Amazon drop off and collection units will follow.
She says she chose Esso because its Nectar points loyalty scheme enables her to “give something back to the community”, and a point of difference, as there are few other Esso outlets in the area.
Among her achievements has been nearly trebling the daily footfall in the 9m by 10m Booker-supplied shop to around 1,400 customers. And she says since moving to Esso her weekly sales, excluding fuel, have gone up from typically £4,000 to £5,000.
She attributes her success to putting “a bit of love into” the business. “I like to put in the effort. At Halloween I put little spiders about so that the kids can find them in the shop. The same at Easter. They can find themselves a little egg and keep it.”
A master class in how to use social media is also connecting with customers. Sealey employs a friend to post on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Among the activity is a ‘question of the week’ in which shoppers are asked what they would like Berkeley Service Station to stock.
She says that while her father has been open to most of her innovations, his conservative touches include keeping the four-star leaded fuel pump, popular with classic car enthusiasts. And the site has retained a long-held tradition of a fishmonger parking on site Tuesday evenings. “Luckily my dad is very supportive, and he’s managed to cope with the amount of changes I put in,” she laughs.
