Zuber Issa has plans to grow to at least 400 EG On The Move sites in the next six years, delegates at the Forecourt Trader Summit heard last week.
His commercial director Ilyas Munshi said the business, which currently operates 153 sites and is owned outright by Zuber, has ambitions to be as large as the UK network he built with his brother Mohsin as EG Group over two decades.
“We come from a background of having circa 400 sites in the UK, so I think that’s our minimum, and we have got to get back to that level in the next five to six years. I think there are massive opportunities in the UK, and we feel very confident with the UK market,” said Munshi.
The business would reach that target by acquiring networks, he said, in addition to continuing to build new to industry (NTI) locations – it currenly has 16. Their typically bigger plots provide greater scope to include electric vehicle charging and drive-thrus.
Munshi, who was a headline speaker at the event, said that having gone through ambitious growth in the UK with the EG Group, Zuber is ready to expand further as a debt-free business, and “having a good set of people around him”. He added: “We have been through it once before in terms of acquisitions taking over sites and integrating people so we have got that t-shirt.”
Munshi went on: “That’s the easy bit to do. The hard work is that you have got to then start working with brand partners and investing in the sites so that people can see that you have added value, and so customers will come onto your site and start accessing the products and services. Investment in infrastructure, people, and systems is critical.
“We are very passionate about forecourt retailing and are always willing to listen and to talk to people if they are looking to exit. There is a lot of appetite out there for people to acquire sites, which is positive for everybody in this room.”
He added: “It is fantastic not to have debt, but people have to be realistic about valuations. If we can do a deal there is capital there for us to make acquisitions.”
Creating destination sites with competitively-priced fuel, strong foodservice, modern grocery convenience, and utra-fast electric vehicle charging – EG On The Move has over 200 chargepoints at 42 locations – are the main drivers for the business, maintained Munshi. “Foodservice has become massive for us and now EV has become big to us as well,” he said.
“We are not the cheapest in town with petrol, but what customers value is the investment we have made.”
He said that the business is taking the same approach with the 98 Applegreen sites Zuber purchased earlier this year.
Only 40 foodservice concessions were inherited with the Applegreen deal, when the preferred EG On The Move business model is to have two to three at each location, such as Chaiiwala, Cinnabon, Sbarro, Subway, and Starbucks.
Adding other revenue services – such as click and collect and parcel lockers – helps forecourts “sweat their assets a lot better”, and that if space permits “it is well worth investing”.
He said that while EV charging is hard to justify as a standalone business – with payback taking 18 to 24 months – it merits the investment because of the spin off trade it can bring.
“Our business model is that everything has to deliver profitability collectively,” he said. “What we have seen as we have grown EV charging, and especially since we have started to work in fast charging, is that sites in Yorkshire have 50 to 60 customers a day using the chargers, who are also going into the Starbucks and shop, generating extra revenue for us. So in any business if you can justify the sum of the whole it is worth investing in.”
