Top 50 Indie VST Forecourts has invested around £300,000 in a comprehensive makeover of its site in South Molton, Devon.
The firm, which operates 10 forecourts and acquired South Molton in August last year, has upgraded the site’s commercial kitchen, kitting it out with a Rational oven to improve its speed and capabilities, but the real improvements are to be found outside.
Here, VST installed new pumps and lines, a new canopy roof and revised entry and exit paths, while the underground tanks were cleaned and a 36,000-litre unit that had previously held unleaded was switched over to diesel to better suit the site’s fuel mix.
“Diesel is our highest seller, but we had only two 13,000-litre and one 8,000-litre tanks for it,” VST owner Vijay Jaganathan told Forecourt Trader.
“We also needed to change the layout of the forecourt as it was difficult for customers, and delivery drivers. Traffic would queue out onto the road at busy times, and there had been two crashes since we acquired the site.”
The forecourt has moved from Esso as part of the refurb, and now sports Valero branding. VST spent around £60,000 on a fresh canopy and associated infrastructure to go with the new look, and a further £200,000 on rejigging the forecourt, cleaning the tanks and installing new lines.
Add in the cost of a new set of pumps, and “it’s cost us around £300,000 all in”, Jaganathan says.
With the forecourt closed for around three months and South Molton not having any other filling stations, locals are already responding well to the new layout and look.
“People tell us they’re much happier with driving in and out now we have the new layout, and trade is already up. It’s too soon to predict by how much – but we can definitely see that fuel and shop sales are both improving,” says Jaganathan.
