BP CONNECT won an award for best managed forecourt chain and Jet an award for best dealer group at last month’s Convenience Tracking Programme Awards organised by shopper consultancy HIM.

BP has opened its first company-owned, company-run Connect site on a motorway. The multi-million pound developments are on the north and south side of the M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh. The two sites are the largest BP forecourts in Europe with retail spaces of 260sq metres. Graham Sims, retail director of BP UK, said: “We want to change the way people perceive motorway service areas and continue to lead the way in forecourt retailing in the UK.”

TESCO is claiming to have become the first major petrol retailer to offer the most environmentally friendly petrol available. More than 150 Tesco

forecourts in southeast England are selling standard unleaded petrol with 5% bio-ethanol, a renewable product that delivers lower emissions of carbon dioxide. The move complements the government’s commitment to promoting the use of bio-ethanol. Tesco’s bio-ethanol is produced in Brazil from sugar cane and shipped to fuel supplier Greenergy’s plant on the Thames Estuary, where it is blended and then delivered to Tesco forecourts.

REGENT, the independent dealer brand available through Texaco’s equity distributors, has launched a website – www.regentoil.com – to keep its dealers up-to-date with the latest information on Regent.