All Retailers articles – Page 15
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News
Applegreen - winner by design
M1 Lisburn was designed to be bigger and better than anything Applegreen had done before, and so it proved. At the Forecourt Trader awards ceremony in September, the company walked off with the biggest prize the Forecourt Trader of the Year trophy. "We were absolutely delighted to win this award ...
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A merry dance
You know standards are high at the forecourt at Toomey’s Southend Motor Village when you arrive and spot the manager Mark Dance straightening a sign on one of the petrol pumps. It’s not so much that he’s adjusting the sign, more that he’s wearing suit trousers, a shirt, tie and ...
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Bonds that drive profit
With eight Texaco branded service stations and convenience stores, 14 workshops, a major wholesale tyre business, a rental property business, emus, deer, cattle and around 800 new-born lambs to contend with, it’s not surprising that Richard Whittemore is up before dawn most mornings. While Richard’s main focus is his automotive ...
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Rising to the challenge
There have been many petrol filling station knock-down-rebuilds which have transformed the existing site into a modern-day forecourt operation, but perhaps few have required quite such vision and creativity to maximise the opportunity, as the owner of Abbeyside Services in Selby, Nick Baker. He has built an imposing two-storey modern ...
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NewsACS calls for restraint from Low Pay Commission
The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has called on the Government to do more to help with the rising cost of employment and to ensure that wage rates do not have a negative impact on job prospects.In its annual submission to the Low Pay Commission, ACS has raised concerns about ...
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P&G hosts inaugural ’Shelfhelp’ forum to help retailers win in convenience
P&G has reaffirmed its commitment to the convenience and impulse channel by hosting its first ShelfHelp forum. The event brought together the company’s ’ShelfHelpers’ retailer ambassadors, all selected by P&G at the start of the year, to work in collaboration with P&G’s convenience teams across its core household categories - ...
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Driving retail
As the first of the MRH/Co-op trial sites opened last month in High Road, Eastcote, west of London it was a great moment for MRH chief executive Karen Dickens and her team, who are on a focused mission to upgrade and grow the company’s network. The opening ...
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News
10 years in the making
Last month East Yorkshire-based Jos Richardson & Son proudly marked 125 years in business, with a celebratory lunch with family, friends and business associates. It was a great occasion and coincided with the official launch of the company’s new £4m service station and truck- stop development on Junction 36 of ...
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Blood, sweat and hopefully no tears
Regular readers of Forecourt Trader will be familiar with the long-running saga of Tollgate Services, a Shell site just off the A2 at Gravesend. They will also therefore be familiar with the determination of its owner, Simon Privett, to defy plans by BP to build a service station and drive-thru ...
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King of the road
Aas the news broke that Rontec was extending its partnership with Morrisons with plans for a further 40 Morrisons Daily convenience stores across its network, I was in the hot seat literally in the back of the car with Rontec’s legendary chairman and chief executive, Gerald Ronson, on one of ...
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News
Duo with a wealth of retail experience
In 1974 Dermot Dowling had already ignited a passion for petrol retailing when he set up Petrocell Holdings. Forty-two years later and now into his 70s, Dermot no longer handles the day-to-day running of the company but, as chairman, remains an active force within the business. The engine of Petrocell ...
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NewsGreenergy extends supply deal with Penny Petroleum
Greenergy has signed agreements to supply a further three sites owned by Top 50 Indie Penny Petroleum, taking the number of Penny Petroleum sites supplied by Greenergy to seven. All of these sites are Esso-branded. Two of the sites, at Sadberge on the A66 between Darlington and Stockton-on-Tees and in ...
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Forging ahead
It’s been a busy start to the year for PRA chairman Brian Madderson, as he responds to the many media requests that follow any news relevant to the forecourt retailing sector. In this case, it was the usual flood of calls to appear on national TV and radio to comment ...
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News
First-class forecourts
Our round-up of the Forecourt Trader of the Year 2016 winners moves on to the Midlands and Northern England midlands: up to 4 mlpa The staff at Blakemore Retail Spar Newark were extremely proud to emerge as winners in what was a very competitive category. Site manager Julie Sharpe, who ...
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Making a splash
For the past few years, car washing has been gradually side-lined by the growth of the forecourt convenience retailing business as well as the competition from hand car wash operators. Much debate has taken place within forecourt businesses nationwide over whether the valuable space taken up by the car wash ...
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Raw talent
Joan and Barry Raw make a very talented brother and sister team. Together they have developed a network of four successful forecourt operations which collectively sell 24 million litres of fuel a year.They complement each other well. Barry does the building. The colourful and engaging entrepreneur who lives abroad ...
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News
Cashing in on chips
Walk through the main doors of Syston Service Station and you’re faced with a tough choice: turn left into the smart Spar convenience store or right into the ultra modern Mackays fish and chip shop. Luckily for owners James Kemp and Simon Mackay, most customers visit both parts of the ...
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Making a marque
Sunshine, blue skies and country roads there couldn’t be a better build-up to seeing the new Murco branding. Driving round a bend on the A30 in Stour, Dorset, and there it is, standing out in all its freshly-installed, star-spangled glory, attracting the attention of motorists surprised by the colourful ...
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Being served
Rachael Hockmeyer runs a mighty fine petrol station for someone who drives an electric car! Yes, she is teased particularly at Texaco meetings but she is more than comfortable squaring the financial and environmental benefits of her car, with running an excellent forecourt convenience store and workshop ...
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Cheeky chappie
The entrepreneurial spirit is certainly alive and kicking on UK forecourts nationwide, and none more so than in the north east in Darlington to be precise where independent retailer Nick Baker of NJB Services has been working hard launching his own brand of coffee.In the past year he ...