Our mystery motorist on a mission visits SGN’s Warwick Road Service Station in Kenilworth
Time of visit: 5.30pm
Kerb appeal: Warwick Road Service Station is tucked away within a one-way system in Kenilworth. Thankfully, the bright red Texaco branding ensures it gets noticed.
Pump action: It’s a busy site with vehicles coming and going constantly. It’s quite a compact site but there is little congestion.
While I was filling up my car I noticed one nozzle with an out-of-order sign.
Given the size and shape of the site, it was impressive to see that they had a car wash, offered air and water, had Amazon lockers, Calor gas and an ATM.
There is advertising for the Texaco app – double points on your first three fill ups if you use the app. There is also advertising for a free car wash. There are pump-top promotions for insulated heavy duty socks and a headtorch at the time of my visit. There is also signage showing that the site uses the Forecourt Eye security system.
Store style: Signage outside the Best-One shop says: “Welcome to best-one Warwick Road Service Station. Owned and operated by SGN Ltd.
“SGN Ltd are an independently owned convenience store and petrol forecourt operator trading across the UK.
“Our style and ethos are simple, excellence of service to our customers through having the right products & services that you our customer need when you need them served to you in a friendly and professional manner”. Quite a bold statement that I needed to put to the test.
The shop is quite small but has most things you would expect.
There is a food-to-go area called Hunger Stop. Signage says: “Feeling hungry? It’s time to refuel. Fast hot food, snacks & drinks to take out”. Underneath this signage are Pot Noodles and porridge pots with a hot water machine so you can add water. Unfortunately the hot water machine was not working. There was also a microwave and a Costa machine, which needed a wipe over. The area had a fridge, which was empty.
There were plenty of Urban Eat sandwiches and Ginsters pasties in the chiller and the site offered a meal deal. Signage clearly displayed what was in the meal deal and what wasn’t, which was very handy.
Elsewhere there was a small off-licence section and a compact car care range.
Value for Money point of sale indicated keen prices on certain products. Messaging said: “We are committed to providing our customers with value for money products, helping you to lower the cost of your shopping”. One good example was pricemarked Pot Noodles (£1.49) being sold at just 79p.
The staff were really polite and very helpful.
On a mission: I was desperate for the loo and was concerned that being such a compact site, it wouldn’t have one. Luckily I was wrong and what a loo it was! It was all absolutely spotless.
While I had stopped, I also filled up with petrol and bought some snacks.
Anything else? The carrier bag I bought from the site indicated that SGN has a ‘Supporting our local hospice’ campaign. This is part of its overarching Working with our Communities ethos, which aims to raise £200K for local hospices. It would have been nice to see more about this on the site but there is plenty of information about the campaign on the SGN website.
Thumbs up for:
• Spotless toilet
• Excellent staff
• Great value-for-money offers
Thumbs down for:
• Empty food-to-go fridge
• Out-of-order hot water machine
