What sells petrol and what are the major considerations when deciding where to develop a new service station? What are the motivating and deciding factors that influence a motorist when he or she decides where to fill up?

Is it convenience, location or service? Or is it the fact that the needle on the vehicle’s fuel gauge is registering E? These are the questions that many prospective and existing fuel retailers often ask to measure the potential and current feasibility of retail service stations.

After more than 35 years in fuels retailing in Southern Africa, I have come to the conclusion that there are no quantum leaps in this business. This is especially true for our regulated petrol market where there is no price advantage. This, of course, does not apply to diesel but, for the purposes of this report, I will focus on petrol as the dominant product.

Many service stations are pumping more or less the same volumes today that they were pumping five and even 10 years ago. In fact, volumes are declining at a large number of sites. There are always exceptions, but the reality is that it is the so-called Establishment Criteria that largely determine a service station’s volume and its potential success or possible failure.

What are the establishment criteria of a service station? Are they the factors and calculations that oil companies and property developers use to determine the volume and feasibility of a new service station? These factors include location, brand, facilities and operations.

In calculating the volume of a service station, a tried and tested industry model is used where a number of facts and assumptions are combined to project potential. The projected fuel volumetric through-put of a new site is calculated as follows:

Service stations are totally dependent on traffic volumes which pass the site on a daily basis. Oil companies and property developers use sophisticated traffic engineering to count and project traffic volumes on the road infrastructure to determine a site’s feasibility. But they have no influence on the actual number of vehicles passing a site, as this is a given.

Moreover, studies of sites with similar characteristics can determine the typical average fill but again this is normally a given and cannot be influenced. And most months boast a maximum of 30 trading days. In other words, traffic volumes, average fills and trading days are a given, largely known, calculated or assumed.

The capture rate is, however, influenced and determined by location, brand, facilities and operations. Many surveys and studies have been done to calculate capture rates, which differ from site to site depending on location. Sites in towns and central business districts generally have capture rates of between 2% and 5%, with access to the site for passing traffic a major contributor.

Location – which can determine up to 70% of a site’s volume – is the key to success for most service stations. It cannot be over-emphasised how important this factor is.

Brands, including that of the oil company and other sub- and franchise-brands, contribute about 10% to a service station’s volume. There are many views on brand loyalty and substantial research has been done in this regard.

When talking about brand we include:

Service station facilities have improved and become very sophisticated in past years. Many sites have morphed into small shopping malls. The reality, however, is that a service station has a forecourt and some buildings with retail stores and shops – and, in most cases, this is what motorists expect.

When talking about facilities we include:

Operational efficiency and excellence should be in place without an issue and again, each is an element that motorists always expect to see and experience when driving onto a service station forecourt.

When talking about operations we include:

In addition, a retail site owner must consider what he or she can do to maintain existing volumes and find new and innovative ways to build capacities. It is a good idea for a retailer to do a site evaluation and look for areas that can be improved. Generally there are two categories that can be evaluated and considered – volume destroyers and volume builders.

There is always some growth in the market but many service stations lose more volume than is added to the site, so that the net effect is normally no growth or volume decline. There are many factors that contribute to this but the following are considered the major influencers:

Motorists experiencing these poor operational efficiencies are less likely to revisit a site and may advise others not to do so. The site gets a poor reputation and volumes decline. In many cases the retailer does not realise that this is happening because motorists don’t complain — they simply don’t come back.

There are a number of steps that a fuel retailer can take to develop new customer bases, increase the capture rate and grow volumes. These include:

Motorists experiencing these poor operational efficiencies are less likely to revisit a site and may advise others not to do so. The site gets a poor reputation and volumes decline. In many cases the retailer does not realise that this is happening because motorists don’t complain — they simply don’t come back.

A famous oil company executive once said that there were 10 things that determined the success of a retail site. “Nine of them are location” he said. “The jury is out on the tenth one but guess what – we think it’s also location!”

Fuel retailing is a complex business with many factors that determine and contribute to a service station’s volumes. The facts and my years of experience, however, show that the major driving influences and contributors remain location, brand, facilities and operations in that order.