There are 11,000 fewer filling stations in the UK today than there were 20 years ago as the total number of fuel forecourts more than halves since 1990.
The revelation comes in the 2011 Forecourt Report by Palmer and Harvey, and is partly as a result of higher fuel prices encouraging people to drive less.
The decline started in the 1990s: until then, the number of filling stations had risen since the first UK forecourts started to appear in the 1920s.
In the 1990s, there were over 19,000 filling stations in the UK. Today, the total stands at less than 9,000.
However, the UK also now has fewer filling stations because we don’t need them so much! Modern cars are more efficient than ever before which, said Palmer and Harvey chief executive Chris Etherington, is another reason we are not filling up as much.
This means the fact there are fewer filling stations may not be the inconvenience it initially seems.
What’s more, of the 8,892 UK filling stations in operation in April 2011, 8,329 also featured a convenience store – and it is this that presents the best opportunity for UK filling stations to stay in business and thrive in the future, said Etherington.
Filling station convenience stores are actually the fourth-largest type of shop in the total UK convenience store market, revealed the 2011 Forecourt Report.
Filling station shops command a 13.1% share of the UK convenience store market, meaning that filling station owners should focus on this side of their business as the prime opportunity to grow in the future. The overall market is thus likely to become less dependent on fuel sales and rely more on grocery sales in the future.
It’s an opportunity that fits well with the traditional filling station profile: long opening hours, high consumer traffic, easily-accesible sites and the fact they’re deeply embedded into local communities.
This will, it is hoped, ensure the number of filling stations in the UK does not decline any further in the future from today’s arguably critical level.
The Palmer and Harvey 2011 Forecourt Report is the first one it has published: it will now be carried out annually, to help the UK’s under-pressure filling station owners best maximise opportunities to stay in business and grow.
Have you been inconvenienced by the closure of a filling station near you recently – and do you welcome the shift in emphasis from fuel sales to grocery business?
