All Retailers articles – Page 17
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News
Creating a legacy (Pt 2)
After a rather flood-ridden start, progress has continued steadily at the new leading-edge forecourt being built by the Chartman Group, the Exeter-based Top 50 Indie, which has nine sites. The company received planning approval for the redevelopment of its iconic Winning Post location near Exeter last year, and all was ...
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Sealing the deal
He said he’d never do it, but in February Ken Kay confirmed that he’d put all his eggs into one basket, by signing the final one of his 12 sites over to the Texaco brand. "I have never wanted to do it because putting everything in one basket is a ...
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Creating a legacy
When last-minute planning issues pushed back the start date on Chartman’s knockdown and rebuild of its flagship Winning Post Filling station, near Plymouth, Devon, they could not have imagined what a challenge the elements would present. Work finally began in mid-January, and Chartman director, Clive Sheppard, comments: "Obviously you expect ...
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Forecourt store picks up top convenience award
Former Forecourt Trader of the Year winner Parkfoot Garage was crowned Convenience Retailer of the Year 2014 at the Convenience Retail Awards, organised by trade magazines Convenience Store and The Grocer. The competition celebrates the best convenience stores in the UK in terms of business achievement, product range, customer service, ...
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Shell shocker
Customers making their regular stop at Tanerdy Garage in Carmarthen were in for a bit of a shock. Not only was it the start of 2014 and time to get back to work, but the colours were all different on their local forecourt. Colours that had been there for 85 ...
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Sainsbury’s milestone
A new Sainsbury’s forecourt and store represent a major milestone for the supermarket giant as the number of Sainsbury’s Local stores has exceeded its supermarkets for the first time. The store, Sainsbury’s Balsall Common Local in Coventry, is the 594th Sainsbury’s Local. Sainsbury’s has pledged to open two new c-stores ...
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Site suffers from storm damage
Emergency services had to be called to Hazlegrove Services in Yeovil, Somerset, to deal with storm damage to the canopy. Clive Sheppard, director of Chartman, the Forecourt Trader Top 50 Indie that owns the site, said staff alerted him to a piece of metal that was flapping loose on top ...
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First Costco PFS to open by summer
The US retail giant Costco has confirmed to Forecourt Trader that its first UK petrol filling station (PFS) is scheduled to open before the summer. As Forecourt Trader revealed exclusively last summer Costco won planning permission for a PFS in the car park of its Liverpool site. Nick Deeks, Costco ...
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BP accused of trying to wipe out customer’s site
The owner of a BP garage has accused the oil giant of aiming to wipe out his business after it won planning permission for a massive development just 50m from his site. His grievance was deepened because he only learned about the scheme when a friend told him about the ...
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Nisa-ly does it
Over the past 30 years Barry and Joan Raw have built up a strong business which, at its peak, sold over 15 million litres of fuel from three sites in the North East of England. Until recently, all three sites retailed under the Jet brand with what the family described ...
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World class service
Once again the cheers rang out for Euro Garages at the glittering occasion of the annual Forecourt Trader of the Year Awards in September. Having taken the top award in 2011 for its Beehive site in Blackburn, the group was once again presented with the most prestigious trophy in the ...
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Spar to the rescue
There’s a new name on the pole sign at Geoff Harland’s B&M Harland forecourt in Pickering, North Yorkshire. And although it’s a name well known throughout the forecourt industry, it’s the first time that it’s appeared as branding on fuel. Supplied by Harvest Energy, B&M Harland has been offering Spar-branded ...
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Motoring ahead
There can’t be many service stations around nowadays that date back so far that they’ve gone from doling out hay and water to horses and carriages, right the way through to serving today’s fuel-thirsty vehicles and their demanding drivers/passengers. But that’s just what’s happened at Prestwick-based David Bryson & Son. ...
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Winning the battle
St George’s Service Station, Church Way, Doncaster was a site in decline with pump volumes falling to two million litres (from four million at its peak), weekly shop sales of less than £5,000, a forecourt full of pot holes and a canopy leaking like a sieve. Lack of investment over ...
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Simply great
Set in the beautiful, rural landscape of Weare in Somerset, the long-established family business of GH Lunn distinguished itself in May by becoming the first forecourt to feature the relatively new, but fast-growing Simply Fresh symbol branding. Owners Simon and Sarah Lunn have been really excited about the interest shown ...
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All’s swell at Bradwell
Earlier this year Refuel & Go’s Bradwell Service Station in Braintree was awarded the accolade of Symbol Retailer of the Year at Palmer & Harvey’s Pro Retail gala dinner. Despite having only opened in July 2012, the 1,200sq ft-plus store is on course to achieve shop sales of around £20,000 ...
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Share and share alike
The ’Park & Shop’ forecourt convenience brand, successfully developed and implemented by the Park Garage Group across more than 50 forecourts, is now available to operators through the UK as the company looks to further extend its involvement in petrol convenience retailing. Recognised by the industry as a ’Top 30’ ...
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Those golden years
You’d need a book to properly relate the life of the colourful character that is Peter Hockenhull, managing director of Leicestershire-based Top 50 Indie Hockenhull Garages. He has a great many stories to tell after 50 years in the fuel retailing business and that’s before you get onto his forays ...
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Retailer profile: Hordle Garage
Attention quickly turns to the unlikely presence of a retro American ambulance parked next to the price pole sign on a visit to Hordle Garage near New Milton in Hampshire’s New Forest. The vehicle was used in Johnny Depp’s film Dark Shadows and when owner Sean Denman saw it ...
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Hindmarch Garage
A forecourt business waits for no one even if a late fuel delivery is threatening to hold the owner up for their daughter’s wedding. That’s what happened to Andrew and Diane Hindmarch, who run Hindmarch Garage in Stamford, Lincolnshire. It was undoubtedly one of the busiest weekends of their lives ...