Sales of soft drinks soared so high during the latest spell of hot weather that Ziheed Mohammed, manager at Woodman Forecourts in Leeds, had to get extra staff in to help fill shelves to keep up with demand.
Woodman is well known for its soft drinks, having won the Forecourt Trader of the Year Best Soft Drinks outlet award on several occasions.
“On Sunday we had record sales; it was heaving in the shop,” says Mohammed. “Luckily we have a back-up chiller so can use drinks from there to fill the chillers out in the store but I had to call in an extra member of staff to help keep up.”
Mohammed’s range of soft drinks is extensive to say the least. And while many forecourts stock US soft drinks, he is busy sourcing and selling Japanese, Chinese and Korean lines. “Anything new, and I will be the first to stock it,” he says.
Best sellers include Coca-Cola original and Fanta in 300ml squat metal cans with a screwtop lid. They are very distinctive looking and sell at £2 each; needless to say they are a big hit.
“The margins are good but I am more interested in the volume of sales,” says Mohammed, adding that he’s constantly shopping around for new suppliers for the drinks.
The only minor headache with the drinks is the language on the cans – Mohammed has to put a label in English listing the ingredients.
For the purposes of this article, Forecourt Trader purchased and tried a couple of the Japanese drinks.
First up, full fat aka full sugar Coke. It’s not as sweet and not as fizzy as the Original Taste Coke we get in the UK. If I drank it in a blind taste test I may well have thought it was an own brand’s take on cola.
Secondly, I tried Fanta White Peach in its delightful pink and silver can. Again this was not that fizzy but it did taste very pleasantly of peaches.
For anyone who is interested, Fanta is one of Coca-Cola’s $1bn brands, and today there are more than 90 different flavours globally.
