Insight Reports

Opportunities in the UK Independent Forecourt Sector

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Opportunities in the UK Independent Forecourt Sector

This shared cost syndicate research was designed to give a clear picture of the supply channels currently serving the market and the rate at which different sectors of the market are developing their convenience offer. It investigated retailer behaviour in terms of purchasing, pricing, merchandising and promotions, and relationships with oil companies, suppliers, their representatives and other sources of retail support.

This volume contains the report and tabulations from a research study on the UK forecourt market carried out by Insight Research during the period March to June 2004.

The research was designed to give a clear picture of the supply channels currently serving the market and the rate at which different sectors of the market are developing their convenience offer. It investigated retailer behaviour in terms of purchasing, pricing, merchandising and promotions, and relationships with oil companies, suppliers, their representatives and other sources of retail support.

The relevance of location was assessed, comparing developments in residential sites (serving often pedestrian and household needs) with developments in transient sites (situated on trunk roads and serving the needs of travellers often far from home). The study examined how the ownership/management/operation of forecourt stores is changing and is likely to change in the future. The extent of centralised decision-making in forecourt multiple and oil-company-owned sites was analysed and comparisons made in terms of the required approach from the supplier.

Two types of interviewing were used:

1. Qualitative open-ended interviews - Taped depth interviews with 55 forecourt store owners and managers as well as forecourt multiple directors and industry specialists. Interviewee commentary is used throughout to support quantitative issues identified.

2. Large-scale telephone questionnaire survey - Structured questionnaire interviews with 685 forecourt retailers (More than 5% of the total market). These structured interviews covered areas that require numerical answers. Breakdowns are presented in table format in the paper report.

Research in this market has in the past frequently been handicapped by lack of a single up-to-date database of operational UK forecourts. This new study has been undertaken in collaboration with Catalist. Catalist is the leading provider of objective and independent data on retail petrol markets worldwide. Each Catalist database contains over 100 items of data per site and is continuously monitored and maintained. Catalist data is used by a range of industries and has become an essential reference point for industry associations and governments.

Our questionnaire survey is based on two samples selected randomly from the Catalist UK database. Further details of the sample selection and weighting procedure may be found in the Technical Appendix at the back of this report.

Published: July 2004

Price: £ 4500, US$ 7895, € 6495

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