A chance meeting at the Top 50 Indies dinner in 2017 with a Phillips 66 executive led to Tariq Majid, director at Majid & Sons, to agree a new supply deal with the Jet brand.

Three of the company’s sites, which have a combined volume of 5mlpa, were recently reimaged and will all be supplied out of the west London terminal. Two of the sites are in Berkshire Basildon Service Station in Reading and Brookside Filling Station in Hungerford and a third, Postcombe Service Station is in Thame, Oxfordshire. The group runs 10 sites altogether, six owned by Tariq and his father Abdul who first established the business 38 years ago. The others are owned by Tariq’s two brothers-in-law, who have two sites each, operating as U&I Fuels. The new supply deal means the group now has five Jet sites, including Jet Baberbridge in West London and Jet Fyfield in Marlborough, Wiltshire.

"We were just out of contract with BP and my dad was always telling me off about how bad the deal was, especially compared to my cousin who had a much better deal with Jet," explained Tariq.

"Jet offered me a competitive deal, but it’s not just about price. We’ve been very impressed by Jet as our supplier at Baberbridge and Fyfield, and we’ve got a great relationship with Chris Murphy, our Jet regional account manager.

"Jet is a strong, clean brand that is popular with our customers across all our locations, and we’re already seeing an increase in customers. Ultimately it’s all about bringing more customers onto the forecourt with a great price, strong promotions and invaluable support. Jet ticks all the boxes. I’m confident that volumes at both sites will rise from 1.7mlpa to 2mlpa within 12 months.

"Once people are attracted onto the site because of the fuel, they see what you have in-store, and they will keep coming back. They key is consistency and good customer service. Even if you’ve done just one little thing that’s made them smile, they’re more likely to come back here than a big impersonal site such as a supermarket.

"When my father viewed his first site (Basildon Service Station) all those years ago, the site was busy but the owner suggested we went to the pub and shut the shop! We couldn’t believe he couldn’t care and was turning all those customers away.

"It’s a family business, which can be challenging at times. But we love it in particular the neighbourhood/local community aspect. My dad’s 68 and he’s still a cashier three days a week at our Baberbridge site in Hounslow, his favourite site!"

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