Rontec and Snax 24 boss Gerald Ronson has been recognised in the New Year Honours list with a CBE.

The 72-year-old business and property tycoon has recently come to the fore with Rontec Investments, a consortium comprising Snax 24, Investec and Grovepoint Capital, created to acquire the assets of Total Oil UK. He is also well known for building Heron Tower, the City of London’s tallest structure.

Ronson made his first inroad into the petrol retailing sector in 1966 when his company Heron International opened a service station in St Albans. By the end of 1967 he had 26 forecourts. In 1970 he owned 100 service stations with throughput averaging 600,000 gallons per year, six times the national average.