Top 50 Indie Motor Fuel Group (MFG) is to partner Morrisons with a pilot a convenience food offer in five of its forecourts.

The pilot will start by the end of the year and will involve Morrisons supplying branded and own-brand food to the forecourt stores.

The shops, all above 1,200 sq.ft, will be branded Morrisons and will receive deliveries of fresh and ambient food through Morrisons logistics network.

David Potts, chief executive of Morrisons, said: “As we said at our recent interim results, we want to consider new opportunities to ‘Serve Customers Better’ in the convenience market where the capital commitment is low and the Morrisons resourcing is light-touch.

“This pilot in Motor Fuel Group filling stations will allow us to trial one opportunity in this growing channel.”

The move by Morrisons comes six weeks after it sold off its 140-strong estate of convenience stores to a team lead by fuel industry veteran Mike Greene, and backed by Greybull Capital.

MFG has 373 stations operating under the BP, Shell, Texaco and JET fuel brands, and is currently second behind MRH in the Top 50 Indies, based on the number of sites.