Rural U.K. Gas Stations Fight to Stay Afloat

Fuel retailers are attempting to buck a national trend of independent petrol stations shutting down.

July 24, 2013

NEWPORT, England – Petrol stations are finding it more difficult to stay in business these days, Petrol Plaza News reports. Many rural retailers are battling high costs and small profits as they struggle to keep going. Nationally in the United Kingdom, 175 independent stations have closed within the last 12 months, which means some towns and busy roads have no fueling stations. 

“You might be able to make one-and-a-half pence to two pence a liter profit margin. The only way you made some money is if you sold a chocolate bar or a sandwich in the process,” said James Cooper at his Lea Brothers Garage in Edgmond. “You can only compete with the supermarkets these days is if you are a big independent with five or six sites. Then you can negotiate on price. The supermarkets have taken the petrol market away from everyone. It will never go back to how it was.” 

Profits are very small these days for independent retailers. “It covers the costs but that’s about it these days,” said Cooper. “We do it more as a service to the people than a moneymaking thing. If it wasn’t for everything else we do at the garage it wouldn’t be viable. Even garages on main roads are closing now. They just can’t buy the fuel cheap enough.”

Mike Horst, who has managed the St Martins Service Station for more than quarter century, attributed ever-lowering profits as the top cause for rural station closures. “The profit margins are so narrow on petrol that many garages in rural areas just can’t struggle on forever. … Fortunately we have the shop at the garage and the car workshop to support the petrol business but many small rural petrol stations don’t.”

Brian Madderson with the Petrol Retailers’ Association also expressed his concern with the recent shuttering of rural stations. “Local filling stations are vital. At this rate of closures, we’ll be left with only motorway services and supermarket forecourts.”

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