The latest forecourt from top 50 Indie The Kay Group includes solar panels and a way to collect rainwater to use in jet washers.
The Stoke-on-Trent forecourt, the 24th for the Blackburn-based business, is a new build on a plot that had been unused for over 12 years. It was previously the site of a ceramics factory and before that a church. However, after what The Kay Group says was a £4m investment and five years of grappling with planning issues the business opened as Sandyford Service Station on February 9.
The rainwater recycling system uses a 30,000 litre harvesting tank to collect and filter its shop’s rooftop and canopy rainwater.
Non-executive chairman Paul Blackmore says that the Tunstall location, just off J15 of the M6, was its biggest appeal with its proximity to a roundabout which sees over 50,000 vehicles pass daily.
“The site location is next to an extremely busy main road roundabout with arterial routes to the densely populated outlying catchment areas of Stoke-on-Trent, with limited local petrol stations and serving a transient route,” says Paul.
But it also had the attraction of being a big plot at over an acre. It has allowed the company to install a seven-bay jet washing and vacuum centre, external seating, and eight pumps with every grade of BP fuel on each hose, as well as an Ad Blue pump under the canopy. The business is also in talks with BP Pulse about introducing two electric vehicle chargepoints later this year.
Inside the 6,000 sq ft building there is a 2,500 sq ft Londis convenience store and a Greggs and Subway franchise at the front of the outlet, with the two fast food operators managing their own operations with their own staff. “We like to leave food to go to the experts in the field,” says Paul.
The 24-hour operation – run by 50 staff, including the Greggs and Subway employees, and six management – also has two Costa Express coffee machines, and it sells Jersey Dairy Thickshakes, Coca-Cola Frozen, Tango Ice Blast and F’real milkshakes and smoothies. It has an off-licence and a strong fresh food offering, with meat, fruit and vegetables, and frozen too.
It has stylish exposed ceilings, spacious aisles and well thought out decorative touches with wood panelling, wood effect floor, and faux tiling. And, as with the rest of The Kay Group estate, the business is looking into installing electronic shelf edge labelling.
Despite a Tesco Express and a One Stop on its doorstep, Paul says that retail and fuel sales have far exceeded expectations.
It also benefits from two entrances from Cartlitch Street and James Brindley Way, and nearby there is an area which Paul describes as having “substantial ongoing retail, commercial, and employment developments”.
Paul says the project, which took five years, has been worth persevering with through what turned out to be a very complicated application process, with many delays primarily brought about by the pandemic, as well as extended consultations with the council’s highways department to secure the two entrances and to deal with the questions posed by having as its neighbour Air Liquide, with its hazardous storage of oxygen.
