Veteran forecourt entrepreneur Gerald Ronson has been knighted in the 2024 New Year’s Honours List.
Veteran forecourt entrepreneur Gerald Ronson has been knighted in the 2024 New Year’s Honours List.
Ronson, 84, chairman and chief executive of Rontec Roadside Retail, which runs around 260 sites in the UK, was recognised for his services to philanthropy and the Jewish community.
Ronson started in the business in 1966 when his company Heron International opened a forecourt in St Albans. By 1970 he had grown the group to 100 service stations.
Rontec was formed in 2011 to acquire Total Oil UK’s forecourt network and went on to team up with Morrisons supermarket to take its Morrisons Daily fascia at more than 50 of his outlets in 2016.
Ronson also founded Snax24 in 1992, and is attributed with pioneering concepts such as self-service sites, canopies and forecourt shops.
The property tycoon is one of the most well-known UK businessmen and was a shining star of the 1980s financial boom under the government of Margaret Thatcher, until he was jailed for his part in the Guinness share-trading scandal in 1990. After six months in prison he set about restoring his name, making large charitable donations, and was honoured with a CBE in 2012.
