Fuel, Food & Future Returns : Roadside’s Forecourt Revolution
“…what we are hinting at is there are some really interesting things happening at #ROAD…”
When consecutive high-profile personnel appointments are featured in shareholder updates, it’s typically associated with inflection points in a business strategy that requires commensurate experience.
Joining the team at Roadside Real Estate is Steve Carson as Chairman and David Phillpot as Chief Operating Officer. Both have retail experience including management at Sainsbury’s, Argos, ScS, Holland & Barrett and BP amongst other familiar names from the high street, the online ecosystem and on the forecourt at petrol stations which is increasingly a focus for the company.
Roadside aims to become synonymous with the energy forecourt market and its role in providing motorists and travellers with a one stop shop of refreshment and functional facilities including laundry-while-you-wait for your electric vehicle to be recharged.
Chief executive Charles Dickson has mind mapped a nirvana for the time pressured traveller who would have access to “very high-quality food to go and all the ancillary services you expect to see whether that’s laundry, car wash, banking, post office, etcetera; all the things that people want to now do at their local energy forecourt.” He also mentions the parcel dropoff points such as Amazon lockers and InPost facilities. “There’s multiple reasons to visit,” he says.
There’s also multiple reasons to focus on the forecourt business as it has the potential to generate a higher return profile.
The company’s last acquisition for example was a Sainsbury’s petrol filling station in Coventry, and after shoring the balance sheet further there are indications more acquisitions of that nature are forthcoming hence the assembly of a ‘dream team’ to assist in the execution of the vision.
The key hires including chief financial officer Doug Benzie, says Dickson, suggests “there’s probably some more interesting things going to be happening at Road.”
As he explains to Sarah Lowther in this video interview. “I would be expecting a lot more acquisitions along the lines that we’ve just made and to scale very quickly now. We’ve got a good war chest on our balance sheet of cash. We built a very, very experienced team and we are very excited about the sector that we are looking to grow in.”
#ROAD featured in our 10 Companies to Follow in 2025 article
Follow the company on X @ROAD_RealEstate
The author was remunerated but does not hold shares in the company
