A first-time buyer has purchased one of the six forecourt sites being sold by Top 50 Indie SK Fuel.

The specialist business property adviser Christie & Co has completed the sale of Sutton Road Service Station on Sutton Road, Hull, with funding secured through its commercial finance broker Christie Finance.

The petrol station is located on a busy arterial route, three miles to the north east of Hull city centre, and serves a mix of residential and commercial customers.

Christie & Co is currently engaged in Project Keys, the disposal of a further five petrol stations in Yorkshire on behalf of SK Fuel, whose owner, Suleman Patel, decided to sell in order to capitalise on the current strength of the market.

He commented: “Having dealt with Christie & Co as both a buyer and seller over the years, they were the natural choice when we took the decision to dispose of Sutton Road in Hull and we are glad to have completed the deal.”

New owner and first-time buyer Lohith Reddy plans to trade under the Costcutter brand and introduce new product lines to increase sales. He said: “It was great to work with Christie Finance, I am an entrepreneur from India and it was my first business purchase in UK. I wasn’t confident about the loan until I had spoken to Alena Jawadwalla at Christie Finance. Since I have never transacted in the UK, I found dealing directly with the banks to be quite complicated, but Alena made it simple and quickly secured the loan for my freehold purchase. I strongly recommend Christie Finance.”

Alena Jawadwalla, finance consultant at Christie Finance, said: “It was a pleasure assisting Lohith with his first petrol station acquisition in the UK. With Lohith residing in the UK on an entrepreneurial visa, this presented a few obstacles with mainstream lenders, but we were able to source competitive lending terms for him by mitigating the risks of the short-term visa. He has sufficient experience in the sector, already devising plans to improve the performance of the business. I wish Lohith every success in his new venture.”

Jon Booth, senior agent at Christie & Co handled the sale and commented: “Sutton Road Service Station represented a great opportunity for a new entrant to the fuel retailing market. The business will certainly flourish and improve with a hardworking, hands-on operator on board and we wish Mr Reddy the greatest of success. The successful sale of Sutton Road shows that there continues to be a healthy appetite across the market for petrol filling station businesses of all shapes and sizes.”

Sutton Road Self Service was sold off an asking price of £649,000 for the freehold interest.

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