You’ve got to hand it to Jet: even on a wet and windswept Thursday afternoon, the firm’s latest forecourt is clearly a triumph.
Wheatley Hill sits astride the busy A181 mid-way between Teesside and Sunderland, and was already doing 11mlpa before the refurb. “We’re hoping to double that,” says site manager Michael Bryan, half in jest, but with an edge of ambition.
Whatever the litreage, the forecourt should be in good hands with Bryan: he’s run the place for more than a decade, porting over when Jet took ownership in 2020, and bringing similarly long-serving team members with him.
Jet was talking about upgrading Wheatley Hill from the day it collected the keys, but between covid and the scale of the task in hand work didn’t begin in earnest until July 2025. When it did, the Phillips 66-owned brand took a blank-slate approach, knocking down every inch of the busy but elderly forecourt and its small Spar shop, and replacing it with something altogether more ambitious.
Out went the higgledy piggledy tank setup 40-year-old forecourts often acquire as they age, and in went a trio of 75,000-litre ones, together with an AdBlue tank, two sparkling new jet-wash bays and four Alpitronic EV chargers, plus ample staff and customer parking, a cashpoint, a picnic area, a separate HGV filling stand with its own canopy and, despite it not really being the sort of site one would want to cycle to, a set of Sheffield bike stands – got to keep those ‘active-travel’ obsessed planners happy, I guess.
Look at historic images from Google Maps and it’s difficult to square what stood before with the site as it is today, because the eight-pump forecourt is similar in scale and ambition to the stops one sees on Continental autostrada, the ‘AUTO FUEL’ directional on the asphalt adding a touch more glamour than a bog-standard ‘CARS’ marking would.
Such is the scale of the Wheatley Hill forecourt that it’s not a million miles from a Buc-ees and, away from the hardstanding, the modest, hut-like shop that once served the site has been replaced with a 2,100sq ft store that feels more like a mini supermarket than anything else.
Jet has stuck with James Hall & Co for the reimagined filling station, and the Spar wholesaler’s sales director, Peter Dodding, says his firm advised on “layout, range and pricing policy” for the new store, just as it did when in 2022 Jet redeveloped Beacon garage 40 miles south in Catterick.
James Hall and Jet clearly work well together, because Wheatley Hill’s shop is bob on the money. There’s hot and chilled food to go and a brace of Costa machines, naturally, but the size of the store means these don’t dominate, the open and airy layout inviting browsing and, by extension, custom.
The cynic might say that with a budget of £4m and only 10 other coco (company-owned, company-operated) sites to worry about, Jet has both the funds and attention to lavish on Wheatley, and its success was something of a sure thing.
But more money has been spent on lesser filling stations, while the 330-plus dealer operated forecourts Jet also has under its wing (not to mention the small matter of Phillips 66’s oil refinery) mean this is hardly a company with little to do.
Anyway, it’s sometimes better to ignore the cynics and admire the panache – as shown in the sheer scale of the place, and the fact Jet decided to open the site a day ahead of schedule – simply because they realised they could, Phillips 66’s retail manager (UK marketing), Graham Clout, tells me with a smile and a hint of corporate pride. Heck, if you’ve got it, you’re arguably doing yourself a disservice if you don’t flaunt it.
We ask store manager Michael Bryan if he’s at all intimidated by how big the new Wheatley Hill is. “No, I can’t wait”, he shoots back enthusiastically. Given 1,000 litres of fuel were sold within an hour of the site reopening on the afternoon of our visit, he’s not the only one.
