Sewell Shares Forecourt Secrets with Leading National Brands

Big brand names from across the country have joined Hull and East Yorkshire retailer Sewell for a day to understand how the independent fuel and convenience business operates.

On the back of the company’s most profitable month of the year in June, Patrick Sewell, Sewell on the Go’s Managing Director, shared his thoughts on why he believes the business has continued to be supported by local people, before giving attendees a tour of four of the twelve forecourts operated by the family run business. He said:

“When the recession hit, we had to make a decision about how we were going to ride a difficult wave. We could have played it safe, stayed as we were and hoped that our core customers remained loyal, or we could be forward thinking and try a new approach to keep ahead of the game.”

“Sewell Group is extremely diverse, with a construction division, schools, nurseries, health centres and petrol stations, but we all live by the same behaviours and principles – we’re local and proud to be local. We employ local people and utilise a local supply chain wherever we can. But we needed to start telling people about this across our forecourts.”

“We began by rebranding our new store on the A63, Hull West, to Sewell on the Go. We lost the national names from our store fascias and focused on ‘Sewell’, a name recognised by the local people. We’re letting our customers know we employ over 300 local people, we stock our shelves with local products, we’re ensuring the local £ is reinvested in the city.”

And the commitment to the local economy is beginning to pay off. Patrick continued:

“Last week was our second busiest week in three years, partly down to the great weather, but I believe its partly down to the fact that local people like to buy and support local wherever they can.”
Sewell are at the mid way point of a full store rebrand to ‘Sewell on the go’, which is expected to be complete by the Autumn. Patrick continued:

“We’re getting consistency across our full retail business offer, whether that be the products we sell, the services we house or the standard of the facilities.  People will begin to recognise our stores when driving around the region and know what type of service to expect from Sewell on the go.”

Michael Topham, Regional Account Manager for Ginsters said:

“Everyone that I spoke to within the Group has an real desire to succeed and this is seen through the exceptionally high standards in the stores we visited. On a personal note having dealt with the Sewell group throughout last year it was great to learn more about the Sewell story and ethos behind the company.”.