20/09/2026
Hi Everyone,
Firstly would like to say that we understand how tough the current fuel price situation is on everyone right now. We hope prices will decrease and that this period of global instability will pass as soon as possible.
Speaking as an independent UK family run forecourt retailer, we hope we can offer an additional perspective to what’s going on. Please consider the information contained within the link below to provide the data behind the price rises and why this does not mean your local fuel retailer is making mega profits.
https://lnkd.in/p/eXUWMnCu
Just because they might look like BP or Shell doesn’t mean they are owned by them. The majority of these businesses use the brands like franchises. Us being one of them. A give away on whether your local BP is owned by BP is whether it has an M&S. If it doesn’t have an M&S then it’s not owned by BP.
Few reasons for why fuel prices can vary so much between fuel stations and different areas below:
1) Some sites have smaller tanks than others, so they hold less stock, when prices rise the more expensive fuel replaces the lower cost fuel very quickly.
2) Some sites have large shops and convenience stores. So they can make more money than others off their shops. Our little Londis shops can do £15k to 20k a week. Most large M&S’s will do £80k a week. So they can use the fuel as less of a profit centre to bring customers into their shops. This is most clearly seen with supermarkets who still treat fuel as a loss leader.
3) We buy tankers on the daily spot market. Some other fuel stations owned by supermarkets or the larger independents like MFG and Eurogarages buy literally billions of litres annually in fuel on a weekly lagged or even monthly lagged basis. That means they can negotiate better rates over platts (global fuel price index) than we can due to their scale.
4) With weekly lagged prices those companies are paying prices based on an average from a few weeks ago, we pay on the daily market price so feel the effects of price rises faster but means we can also deliver cheaper fuel when prices drop
5) Some sites have a higher % of fuel card users than others. Did you know that over 75% of our fuel volume is from fuel cards at motorway sites and we only get a low fixed margin between 1 and 3ppl from the fuel card companies. Ever wondered by the motorway prices are higher? That’s one of the key reasons. Fuel card rates haven’t changed with inflation and are pretty much the same as they were 20 years ago. Monopolistic anti competitive fuel cards are making more money than most of the retailers on diesel sales to businesses. Fuel retailers are supporting UK business by accepting these low rates.
6) Some companies have different overheads and wage rates depending on where they are in the country. The rent or mortgage on a property near London is unsurprisingly much higher than in rural locations
7) Some sites are better located so naturally have more traffic flow meaning they can capture more fuel volume. A rural site can do 20% of a busy motorway site. Same overheads so need to charge more per litre.
8 ) Rural sites located further away from the terminals also get charged more haulage by the fuel companies the deliver the fuel to them
9) The different fuel brands have different additives which cost more. If a company owns and sells their own branded fuel (like a Tesco or a Morrisons or a sainsburys) then they can sell for lower than we can as we have to pay a fuel brand like bp. We are not owned by bp we use it like a franchise
10) Time of year. Fuel volumes fluctuate over the year. If schools are out fuel volumes fall. In Summer we are c.20% on school time. So when cost prices rise significantly when school holidays start it’s the worst case scenario. Now volumes are returning which should help depress price increases.
11) Certain ownership traits. Some owners decide to sell fuel cheaply because they have other business interests that they can rely on for their income. They may have inherited the site so it doesn’t owe them any money or they may not have a mortgage. If you are in an area where the local owner can afford to make a lower rate of return then great for you but doesn’t mean necessarily that others are charging more than they should to make a reasonable rate of return.
Higher prices are a nightmare for us. Staff get negative comments from the public who think we are ripping them off because of what the RAC and government says but actually in these times we sell less fuel and make less profit per litre as we have to absorb some of the cost rises so we make less £ than normal. The lower our fuel prices are the more fuel we sell. It is a price elastic product. We want prices to fall as much as anyone. Not rise.
We want to assure you that we are working hard to reduce our fuel prices as quickly as possible. By supporting the shop side of your local forecourt business you can really help lower prices for longer, even buying a coffee or a chocolate bar can really help.
Hope this helps explain why sites price differently and see the situation as we see it on the ground. We’d ask you consider also what % return companies should be allowed to make each year from running a business in the UK in 2026. Bearing in mind you could get almost 6% interest just for buying UK gov debt and doing nothing. Should we be allowed to make a 6% return? 8%? 10%? We certainly don’t think our profits should be considered profiteering and making a profit should still be aspirational so we can pay taxes which support public services.
We would like the media to put more pressure on the government instead of retailers as they have earned more this year in duty and VAT than before the Iran conflict started. After the latest price rise the governments position has become untenable in our position. We feel that if anyone is profiteering it is the government. They must cut fuel duty asap. Please consider writing to your local MP on this important issue. We continue to ask them but so far have not received a meaningful response.
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