The development of new houses in the shadow of a busy family forecourt business in West Yorkshire has led to the owners investing in a modernisation programme of their store to ensure it reflects the community they serve.

Some 40 houses have been built to one side of Smithies Service Station in Batley and a further 200 are planned, changing the face of the community where the forecourt has been for more than four decades.

Owner Sajid Mohmed said although his store was in a great condition, he felt it was important to bring it right up to date, having last had any work done almost 10 years ago when he joined Nisa. And so, the latest Nisa Evolution format fascia has been installed as well as modern interior signage.

“We are seeing lots of new regular customers in here who have moved into the new-builds," said Sajed. "There are a lot of younger people and they expect certain standards. It’s important our store meets their expectations and by investing in the store we are demonstrating that we care about it and about providing them with a great facility.” 

The facelift has brightened up the outside as well as the inside of the store with Nisa’s grey and yellow Evolution fascia much smarter than the older white one. Meanwhile creative signage and new vinyls in the store has modernised the 1,000sq ft shop and customers love the new look which has a created a more welcoming feel.

Situated on a busy road the forecourt also enjoys a lot of passing traffic and is a popular destination for shoppers at breakfast with the coffee machine and hot cabinet doing a great trade every day.

But the new housing development is also impacting on what the forecourt sells with demand for groceries, especially chilled goods, increasing.

Site manager Javid Patel, who has been at the site for 19 years, said: “We are doing some work on our ranging and using the expertise at Nisa to make sure we get it right for our customer base.

“We like to give new products a try, for example protein bars and drinks sell really well and we often get new lines in to try. The market is changing and so we are having to change too,” added Javid.

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