Tom Highland is half way to his target of operating 10 sites by the age of 40, with the acquisition of a former BP/M&S forecourt in St Ives town centre, Cambridgeshire.
Tom, aged 33, completed on BP St Ives Filling Station yesterday, bringing his network to five. He has also this month relaunched his fourth site, an Esso petrol filling station in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, which he acquired last autumn.
The St Ives site was last refurbished in 2014, and a priority will be stamping the Highland Group’s personality onto the 0.9 acre acquisition, which has an 1,800sq ft shop, and on the forecourt, four fuel islands with eight pumps, and two HGV pumps.
Tom, who has taken the reins of his family’s Highland Group business from his father Stephen, says that he aims to make the site more competitive on price in both the shop and for fuel - with the totem taking the Highland Group name.
In the next three months, Tom plans to replace the rollover car wash and jet wash bay with new like for like equipment, and to introduce AdBlue on pump at the Needingworth Road site.
And like Highland Group’s award winning Childerley Gate Service Station, in Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire, there will be a focus on local food and drink, including meat, bread, eggs, vegetables and alcohol, alongside general groceries supplied by Nisa.
Also, Tom who will become a local when he moves home to the town in the next few weeks, is planning to add the serve-over bakery range of fresh cakes and baguettes, and Highland Group-branded coffee to go, popular at Childerley Gate.
“We want to keep the premium feel and to add a local element,” says Tom, who is also keen to change the range to reflect that there is now greater grocery competition in the area.
“We are looking at the range and will only stock products that work for the area, which has seen a lot of change since the M&S was introduced here. There is now a Morrisons superstore with fuel and an Aldi next door,” he says.
“People are not doing their grocery shop here, they want food for now and tonight. We aim to refresh the site and give it a new lease of life to drive footfall.”
Tom, who was given the Special Recognition accolade at Forecourt Trader’s industry awards last October, is now on the look out for further sites in Cambridgeshire and neighbouring counties, with the help of William Trott, managing director of WT Estates, who brokered his latest deal.
William Trott says that the St Ives acquisition presents ”a fantastic opportunity for further development”.
He adds. ”The site marks a fantastic milestone for Tom. He now operates five high calibre forecourts across Cambridgeshire, which include the award winning Childerley Gate Service Station, and his most recent acquisition to the network Esso in St Neots, which has undergone a recent major redevelopment program.”
”These acquisitions once again show the quality of Tom’s work and his vision to continue the growth of his family business.”
Highland Group’s other two forecourts are at Potton, in Bedfordshire, and Royston, Hertfordshire.
