All Retailers articles – Page 18
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Provident pastures
Last month the Top 50 Indie Dewsbury-based Brookfield Group, held a grand celebration to mark the opening of its new £2m forecourt development in Pocklington, East Yorkshire. The launch of the new-to-industry site was marked by a two-day event which included a visit from a Ferrari Formula 1 racing car, ...
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Building business
It’s a busy time for the Simon Smith Group with the imminent knockdown rebuild of two of its seven filling stations. The new sites include shops with a combined floor space of 5,000sq ft, which will add impetus to the firm’s retailing business. Plans are also in place to introduce ...
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Sites for sore eyes
Life in the fast lane, for many of us is literally just that charging down the outside lane of the motorway in a rush to get to the next appointment, whether that is work or play. But wouldn’t it be nice to get off once in a while and ...
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Social climbers
If you’re not posting or tweeting, uploading or linking you could be missing a promotional trick. That’s because more and more forecourt retailers are using the likes of Facebook and Twitter to boost their profile in their community and promote what they do. Take Amanda Manchett, group marketing manager at ...
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Sound vision
Falcon Garage is an amazing new development that displays great vision. And so will its customers when plans to open an opticians on the forecourt reach fruition later on this year. The site, in Tadley, Hampshire, is owned by Suresh Patel and his wife Usha, and has been totally transformed ...
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Partners for profit
Strong growth continues to underpin the financial performance of MPK Garages Ltd, with the Leicester-based forecourt operator reaping the benefits from its partnership with Londis and an incisive fuel supply strategy. Last year’s turnover for the Top 50 Indie rose by over 20% as its portfolio of 25 filling stations, ...
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The Winning Legacy
When the Chartman Group’s Winning Post site in Exeter finally opened its doors on May 14 it was the culmination of a seven-year plan to create a legacy. It hasn’t all been plain sailing, but by being patient, and with a bit of good luck thrown in, the end ...
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Creating a legacy (Pt 3)
Exeter-based Top 50 Indie, the Chartman Group, has finally completed the redevelopment of its flagship Winning Post site on the A38 at Haldon Hill (see April and May issues for previous reports). The site lies within an area of great landscape value, and the design brief was for a high-quality ...
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Pride of Portsbridge
It’s been a painstaking process but last month saw the opening of a glorious redevelopment of a forecourt site in Cosham, Portsmouth, by the family-run Garner Group. Brothers Mike and Tim Garner, along with financial director Dave Auger, have overseen an amazing transformation of Portsbridge Service Station, a small, traditional ...
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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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A new beginning
They’d had their eye on it for eight years, and finally last December the Cheema family acquired their first forecourt. They bought a Texaco site just over a mile down the road from their award-winning Costcutter convenience store in Tile Hill, Coventry. It was sold to them by Top 50 ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 ...