The Forecourt Show once again returns to the NEC Birmingham later this month (April 24-26), running alongside the National Convenience Show and Farm Shop & Deli Show. This is an essential, must-attend event for anyone who is serious about petrol retailing as it gives visitors the chance to catch up with existing suppliers, source new ones, see the latest equipment and technology and network with their peers. This year’s exhibitors include Airserv, BOSS, Euro Car Parts, Eurotank Service Group, Experian Catalist, Fairbanks, Fast Trak, Harvest Energy, Gilbarco Veeder-Root, Glasdon UK, Global Msi, Greenergy, Gulf Retail, Harvest Energy, Istobal UK, Jet, Karcher, Murco, Petrol Sign, PFS Fueltec, Pongo UK, RS Sales and Distribution, Silverstone Automotive and Spot Promotions.

Who is exhibiting what?

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Airserv

Airserv will be exhibiting its superior quality Buy-Time Jet Wash. The company says this unit is already used by large hypermarket chains and serious independent operators. Airserv will also be exhibiting its air and screenwash unit and vac and fresh unit.

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Bever Innovations

Bever Innovations can help you create a wireless and protected network between illumination, pos, price sign and other systems at your site with patented EOS technology. The company says this is the ideal solution for remote stations to check and change all kinds of status, data and settings from a distance, and to modernise them without installing cables.

"What we’re talking about is delivering a degree of collaboration and visibility unheard of in the petrol retail market," says Jeannot Bruggeling, commercial director at the company. "A wireless, remote application that can monitor your entire network using specially developed software and an app. Different devices can become part of one network, essentially driven by a great amount of data."

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Gilbarco Veeder-Root

Gilbarco Veeder-Root is making a return to The Forecourt Show and is looking forward to using the opportunity to share its latest developments as well as build on relationships with its existing customers and welcome new ones especially those from the dealer market where Gilbarco Veeder-Root’s recently expanded dedicated-dealer team is currently very active.

With over 150 years’ experience in the fuel retail industry, Gilbarco Veeder-Root says it is the name customers can trust as a business partner, built on years of hard work and determination, perseverance and dedication to bringing the very best in quality and reliability when it comes to solutions for their enterprise.

This ethos is embodied in Gilbarco Veeder-Root’s wet-stock management service, Insite360. Operating 365 days a year round the clock, Insite360 supports the daily management of a site’s wet stock, continuously monitoring reconciliation performance, checking for abnormal variance and loss as well as many other features designed to truly optimise the daily running of a petrol forecourt. Be sure to get a first-hand look at the show, where a demo portal will be available offering a view of the new features and developments.

Gilbarco Veeder-Root will also be showcasing the latest developments in multimedia for the SK700 multi-product fuel dispenser. Utilising multimedia at the petrol pump provides a direct channel to the end customer, facilitating promotions and special offers and services, generating more c-store footfall upselling opportunities. It’s a very powerful tool for any forecourt and well worth seeing in action at the show.

Visitors can also find out about Gilbarco Veeder-Root’s dedicated network of service engineers, which it says forms the UK’s largest dedicated forecourt service organisation with an exemplary health and safety record.

To help retailers, Gilbarco Veeder-Root will also be providing information on its equipment lease plan schemes.

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Glasdon UK

Glasdon UK will be talking to visitors about its Buffer Bollards as used by Q8 Easy on the Continent. Q8 contacted Glasdon Europe SARL and purchased personalised Buffer Bollards featuring the Q8 Easy logo on decorative bands.

The bollards are made from 100% recycled rubber tyres and will withstand accidental parking nudges, but feature a strong steel core that makes them incredibly resilient.

Glasdon will also be exhibiting its Auto-Mate petrol forecourt bin which is a litter bin, towel dispenser and glove dispenser all in one space-saving unit. The bin is specifically designed for busy forecourts and will not chip, rust or corrode.

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GSS Training

GSS Training successfully trains thousands of delegates each year in topics such as Safety Passporting, Risk Assessments, Managing Safely, First Aid and NLP courses such as Leadership and Development, Conflict Management. The company is accredited to run many health and safety courses including SPA, IOSH, CCNSG and Highfield.

It also offers training in the SPA Petrol Passport required by contractors working on UK forecourts. The course includes: ignition sources, DSEAR, petrol forecourt hazards and safe work practices.

Past clients include AA Road Services, Tokheim, O2, Costain, Tarmac, Volvo and BMW.

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Gulf Retail

Gulf Retail will be strongly represented to demonstrate just why so many UK dealers are turning to Gulf to protect the long-term prosperity of their businesses. The Gulf network now has over 500 sites and continues to grow as the company drives down costs for its dealers while offering flexible and competitive packages.

Investment in infrastructure, people and forecourt marketing is ongoing and every independent operator is welcome to the Gulf Retail stand to share information, discuss future plans and for a sneak preview of Gulf’s exciting new racing heritage-inspired uniform range which will be rolled out in the summer. It’s another element of the company’s drive to strengthen every aspect of the Gulf brand package.

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PFS Fueltec

PFS Fueltec will be exhibiting its Gazzign forecourt traffic management advertising LED sign, which allows forecourt staff to direct customers to the correct fuel grades that are available, quickly and safely.

Also on display will be the award-winning Risbridger Innovent system which offers the user a low-level maintenance solution for the fuel tank breathing and Stage 1b vapour return.

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Rolec Services

Rolec EV has recently launched the AutoCharge EV, a versatile electric vehicle-charging pedestal which has the ability to provide five different charging solutions to suit every possible requirement and location. As such, the AutoCharge EV Pedestal is said to be the most versatile EV charging pedestal on the market offering a variety of free-to-use and pay-to-charge options.

Managing director of Rolec, Kieron Alsop, says it offers a "true future-proof charging solution". "As well as the AutoCharge Pedestal having the potential for five different charging solutions, it has also been designed to be upgradable. The host can install the entry level version, offering the EV driver a free-to-charge solution and, at a later stage, easily upgrade to one of the pay-to-charge solutions without the necessity to replace the pedestal itself."

The host chooses one of the following options for their AutoCharge EV Pedestal: Free-to-use, which gives unrestricted EV charging; Keyswitch control, where a key is provided to activate the charging socket, a great solution for providing secure access to staff, members, etc; Coin/TokenMaster, this provides a pre-determined EV charging period, activated using a coin/token; Group Manager, this is where the EV driver is issued with an RFID card/fob which is then used to activate EV charge points within a private network. Charging information is then fed back to a cloud-based management system for billing, data collection, analytics, etc; and EVCharge Online, this is Rolec’s flagship open networked EV charging system, whereby all EV drivers are able to pay for and control EV charging via their mobile phone. Connectivity is provided by Vodafone, and the user can pay-to-charge using Visa, Mastercard, American Express or PayPal.

The Forecourt Conference

The ACS/PRA Forecourt Conference takes place on Wednesday April 26 as part of ACS’s Summit 2017 event.

Speakers include: Patrick Sewell (Sewell Group), Arthur Renshaw (Experian Catalist), Joseph Richardson (Glews), Markus Hofman (New Retail Realities), Merril Boulton (Forecourt Trader), James Lowman (Association of Convenience Stores) and Brian Madderson (Petrol Retailers Association).

The day kicks off at 9am with coffee followed at 9.30am by the welcome address. The first session is entitled The Big Picture and will see Arthur Renshaw and James Lowman share the latest data and insight. Session two at 11am has an introduction from Brian Madderson followed by retailer Joseph Richardson talking about Brand Importance and Newbuild Opportunities.

Next up is James Hallam with Vision 2030: Accenture with Tesla; then it’s Shell UK’s future fuels manager Jane Lindsay Brown talking about alternative fuels. In session three there will be a Retail Masterclass chaired by Forecourt Trader editor Merril Boulton with contributions from Forecourt Trader of the Year 2016 winner Patrick Sewell of Sewell on the go, who will talk about learnings from overseas that have been applied in-store and also from New Retail Realities’ director Markus Hofmann.

Forecourt Trader panel

On Tuesday April 25, you can attend a special Forecourt Trader panel session. Entitled ’Forecourts: the key drivers’, it will run from 12.15 to 13.00 at The Retailer Hub, which is situated where The Forecourt Show and National Convenience Shows meet.

The panel of experts from the booming petrol retail sector will discuss the latest trends in the market. Questions including How strong is the independent sector?, What are the challenges? And what are the key influences that prompt a customer to drive on to a particular forecourt? will all be covered.

The session will be chaired by Merril Boulton, editor of Forecourt Trader and will feature the following speakers: Ramsay McDonald, retail director, Certas Energy; Brian Madderson, chairman, Petrol Retailers Association; Blake Gladman, research director, him!; and Kevin Eastwood, executive director, BOSS.