Seeking organic growth across forecourts

The forecourt convenience market is one of the more attractive expansion areas in retail right now. Success will depend on a variety of factors including offer execution, retailer experience and quality of sites.

The real opportunities in forecourt convenience are how sites are evolving beyond fuel. Forecourts are becoming retail destinations and not just fuel stops, more of a ‘roadside convenience hub’ than just a ‘petrol station’. Growth drivers include food-to-go, multi-income streams such as parcels and EV charging resulting in longer dwell times in stores.

However, these opportunities come with real constraints. High upfront costs around land and/or infrastructure, fuel demand uncertainty and planning and regulation restrictions are all things to factor into a forecourt-focused growth model. Plus progressing with these innovative opportunities adds levels of complexity to day-to-day operations.

best-one is set up to capitalise on forecourt growth by focusing on being a symbol group fascia better suited to organic growth across independent and smaller forecourt operators. best-one’s Grab & Go format – quick stops, distress purchases and high footfall – aligns perfectly with forecourt consumer behaviour. Through Bestway Wholesale, best-one can offer reliable, delivered and cash and carry supply options, with product availability across core convenience categories. This is critical for forecourts where availability is key for sales and fast stock replenishment is essential.

Meeting the challenges

Identifying the right model and format for retailers to maximise their profits based on store proposition can be challenging. As part of the Bestway group of fascia stores, best-one has a team of business development managers (BDMs), who can support business plans for every type of convenience retailer. In the field, a dedicated best-one BDM team supports retailers and develops their stores to drive business performance. In addition, a team of category managers and range planners work with market insights to determine the best product ranges by subcategory, and by store size, to help retailers maximise their sales, profit and footfall.

Working collaboratively with suppliers helps retailers to stock the right range, improve profit margins and offer shoppers great value. A regular refresh of the offer is important to attract new customers and inspire greater interest from existing loyal shoppers. Bestway brings impactful and engaging group-wide NPDs that are launched across both the retail fascias and wholesale depots, helping their retailers drive further incremental sales from consumer market trends.

Incentivising retailers is also important to achieving optimum performance in the market. best-one recently refreshed and simplified its ‘My Rewards’ rebates, offering retailers up to 5% back on spend, which can be used to invest in store development projects. Furthermore, its Retail Tobacco Club offers retailers the opportunity to drive footfall through their tobacco sales. Retailers are also provided with ways of growing their sales with both direct-to-store suppliers, and last mile delivery partners.

Additional incentives for best-one retailers include:

● £0 membership costs.
● A marketing launch package for both new and refitted stores. In addition to ‘on the day’ assistance, retailers are provided with online support to make their stores more visible when consumers are searching for convenience retailers online.
● Thirteen, four-weekly promotional periods. All stores are provided with a comprehensive point-of-sale kit, including window posters, shelf talkers, stack cards, and shelf edge labels, as well as an implementation guide to support every promotional period.
● Access to best-one Vault, a portal that provides additional point of sale, uniform, hardware and other miscellaneous sales aides.
● An industry-leading B2B website for ordering, plus a focused B2C website for shopper promotions and marketing.
● Access to both a collect and delivered service through one Bestway National depot network, optimising delivery loads and routes to pass on better value to retailers.