BP has implemented a series of significant store updates at four forecourts as it seeks to tailor its roadside retail offerings to precisely reflect customer needs at individual sites.
The oil major says the project amounts to a new philosophy for fuel retailing, with each forecourt shop being improveed to reflect discrete customer demands.
BP Merrow in Guildford, for example, has been seen its ambient, chilled and frozen offerings improved, and is the first BP forecourt in the UK to feature its own M&S bakery – all to cater for customers who often use the store to shop for food for later.
The firm’s Pinkham Way filling station in North London, meanwhile, is now home to self-checkouts, an improved Wildbean Cafe and an expanded M&S Food range, all designed to appeal to ‘on-the-go’ customers.
BP also focussed on on-the-go customers when refreshing its Budbrooke South site near Warwick, while at Poppleton, near York, the company has updated the forecourt shop so that travellers wanting to top up their fridges and cupboards ahead of dinner need not stop elsewhere.
The programme is part of a “test and learn” initiative from BP, which comprises two formats: ‘top-up shop’, seen at Poppleton and Merrow, which aims to appeal to short-cycle grocery shoppers and features an expanded premium food offer; and an ‘on-the-go’ model, implemented at Pinkham Way and Budbrooke South, and targeting customers looking for sustenance for their travels.
The company says a third format combining food-to-go and food-for-later will debut in 2026, with each of the three models being “shaped by local customer insights”.
Jo Hayward, BP’s vice president for mobility & convenience UK retail, says the refreshed forecourts “mark the next step in evolving BP’s convenience offer”, and that the firm has “listened to what local customers want and redesigned our stores around those insights, whilst maintaining something that is scalable and replicable”.
