VST Forecourts, which entered the Top 50 Indies this year, plans to use the commercial kitchen of a recent forecourt acquisition to develop a menu for food-to-go that can be easily replicated at filling stations that lack full catering facilities.
The firm, which counts nine trading forecourts in its portfolio, purchased South Molton Services in Devon earlier this year, and intends to make full use of the commercial kitchen located in an outbuilding to the rear of the site.
“The kitchen was one of the key factors in deciding to buy South Molton, boss Vijay Jaganathan told Forecourt Trader. “We offer hot food to go at the site for breakfast and lunch, and change the menu regularly”.
With weekly food-to-go sales already hitting as much as £4,000 at South Molton, Jaganathan is soon to introduce evening meals at the site, too, with the plan being to offer peri-peri chicken, pizza and burgers, effectively making the forecourt a takeaway food shop as much as a busy filling station.
“When you have a commercial kitchen you can do so much more food to go, which improves volume and drives shop sales, as people will buy drinks and other things to go with their meals. We have a very talented chef working there, and I’m going to hire another chef for the evening meals”, Jaganathan explains.
VST Forecourts’ culinary plans don’t stop there, though: with eight other filling stations all needing food to go, the South Molton kitchen will supply sandwiches for the firm’s portfolio, and the firm is already working on developing a brand name for its produce.
Jaganathan and his team are also set to experiment with different ingredients and menu items at South Molton, with the aim being to devise a line of hot food-to-go products that can be cooked easily at sites without a full commercial kitchen, using only a combination oven.
“Making fresh hot food can be difficult and can need lots of equipment, so we want to create a menu that can be sold at our other sites and cooked just using a Rational oven.
Jaganathan has the expertise to back up these plans, too. “Before I had fuel stations I ran pizza shops in London, so I can bring that knowledge this business. Food to go has been a big trend in forecourts over recent years, and we need to accommodate that.”
