Go, which operates around 20 filling stations in Northern Ireland and specialises in unmanned sites, is continuing to make inroads into the English market, with construction commencing on a fourth project.
The firm has grown rapidly across the Irish Sea, while its parent company LCC Group owns an oil terminal, giving the company true vertical integration.
Work on the new Liverpool site, which sits opposite Aintree Racecourse, is well underway, with canopy stanchions erected based on images shared by Liverpool World, who also confirmed Go as the developers.
The Aintree build follows three other forecourts put up by Go in the Liverpool area in the last three years, with a Garston site opening in June 2025; a Tranmere forecourt completing in March 2024; and a filling station on St. Mary’s Road trading since September 2022. The company is also awaiting the decision of Lancaster City Council following the submission of a planning application for a new unmanned Go forecourt proposed for Heysham Port.
While not having to construct, stock, staff, licence or power a shop undoubtedly contributes to Go’s agility as it expands, some of the firm’s sites feature jet-wash bays. The company prominently promotes its fuel prices on social media, and frequently builds canopies reminiscent of the sector in the 1960s, when American forecourts in particular drew inspiration from the space race.
Go has been expanding rapidly elsewhere, too, opening at least a dozen sites since 2022. In addition to its portfolio of four forecourts in England and 20 in Northern Ireland, the company has seven filling stations in the Republic of Ireland.
Go’s recent growth is no doubt linked to the success of its owners, Cookstown-based LCC Group, which began life as a coal merchant and is now one of Northern Ireland’s most valuable companies.
With interests in coal, oil, aviation, shipping, home heating supplies and commercial energy, the £1bn+ firm also owns an oil terminal, having in 2005 constructed a state-of-the-art facility on the banks of the river Foyle in County Londonderry with Statoil, an energy company (since renamed Equinor) majority owned by the Norwegian government. LCC bought Statoil out from the refinery in 2016, and now exclusively owns the terminal.
