An experienced forecourt retailer in the West Midlands expects a recent conversion from an independent fascia to Nisa’s Evolution store to result in sales more than doubling over the next 18 months.

Shailesh Parekh, who runs six forecourt stores in the Wolverhampton area, completed the development at West Cross Service Station in Smethwick in August and sales are starting to increase.

He said: “Sales are starting to creep up here. It takes a bit of time to build up the business but I have a similar store, same sort of size and location, elsewhere and so I know what the opportunity is here and what to aim for.”

As part of the conversion of the 750sq ft store from independent to Nisa’s Evolution format, fresh space has been increased by three bays and an extra two bays of chilled space has been added to improve the beers, wines and spirits offer.

The food for now focus has been improved with the addition of a Costa machine, Snowshock and a microwave. And the shelving for ambient groceries have also been increased in height to allow the range to be increased within the existing footprint.

Shailesh said: “My customers want fresh but they want it to be instantly consumable rather than take home so I am trying lots of different lines. People have choices – they choose what they want to buy and where they want to buy it from and so what we need to do now is make sure this store makes people come back and come back again.”