Top 50 Indie The Kay Group saw its turnover jump a massive 35.2% from £144.9m to £195.9m in the year ending October 31, 2022. At the same time, gross profit was up just over 17% to £16.35m.
In documents filed at Companies House, the Group said the Covid-19 pandemic continued to have an impact in the first few months of the period but overall turnover increased significantly, mainly due to increases in fuel turnover. The quantity of fuel sold was flat but increases in the oil price drove prices at the pump to unprecedented levels. Shops and services, while not as strong as in Covid-times, continued to deliver strong results. The company said that the opening of the new-to-industry Dobshill site added to its success and that it was satisfied with the progress it was making, particularly as it has benefited from the fact that there was a competitor site trading very near to the location right up to the point of the new Kay site opening.
Since the balance sheet date, the company has completed the development of its Winsford site and expects to have another site ready to open in Stoke on Trent by November. There is still one other site that the company wants to develop but no firm start date is set, and it is unlikely to be in 2023.
In recognising that it sells products which can be seen to be harmful to the environment, the company has invested heavily in its storage and monitoring systems to ensure risk to the environment is negligible.
There has been significant capital spend during the year to maintain and improve some of the fuel storage systems, and it has a rolling plan in place to improve more in the next two years. The company has installed Stage 2 Vapour Recovery at the majority of its locations.
It has reduced its carbon footprint by installing energy saving equipment in most of its outlets.
Rainwater harvesting is installed in all new developments and the company is committed to installing solar panels to most of its service stations. Two have already been installed at the period end and the remaining sites will be installed this year. The documents state that Kay has invested more than £1.6m in the project and anticipates a reduction in electricity usage from the grid of 20%-25%.
The company has also invested more than £100,000 into monitoring equipment to help it operate devices and machinery to a more optimum level. It is expecting usage savings of around 5%-8%.
It was also noted that the Group has a standalone EV charging planning application in for next to its Castlewood, Sutton-in-Ashfield location.
In a statement about staff, The Kay Group said it has worked hard on its staff retention and is very proud of the number of employees who have over 20 years’ service, and the large number who have in excess of 10 years’ service. It added that all of its employees are paid more than the minimum wage.
