Torex Retail has acquired the entire share capital of Mercury Petroleum Systems Ltd, a leading supplier of wet stock management services to the retail petroleum industry. Its customers include Sainsbury’s, Statoil and Fuelforce.

The acquisition follows the purchase by Torex over the past nine months of Arciris Ltd and Micrelec NV of Belgium, both companies specialising in supplying major oil companies and their retailers with ‘tank to bank’ solutions for their filling stations and convenience stores.

“While our main focus remains the continued development of our health business, our retail division is an important part of our group’s activities,” said Chris Moore, chairman of Torex plc, commenting on the latest purchase. “We therefore recognise the need to take advantage of extremely attractive acquisition opportunities when they arise. The addition of Mercury Petroleum Systems to our existing Arciris and Micrelec businesses creates a significant European supplier of IT solutions to the petroleum retail sector.

“Working closely together they will be able to offer a unique wet and dry stock control system for petroleum retailers as well as a reliable leak detection system that meets the environmental protection requirements of filling station operators.”