Spanish delegation visit Garage Watch stand at IFFE 2007

ROWLEY’S FILLING STATION SALEN, ISLE OF MULL

We had been coming on holiday to Mull – mainly for the Tour of Mull car rally in October – for many years and fell in love with the island.  I am originally from South London with a finance and admin background and Martin is a qualified mechanic from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.  We got married on Mull in 2001 and had been looking for a change and a slower pace of life for some time, so we sold up and moved here in January 2004.  We have a very small shop – about 15m2 – but apart from sweets and drinks we have stocked up with a good range of car accessories.  The pumps we inherited were old, in fact one had a mechanical display and was well photographed by visitors!  About 18 months ago with the aid of a 50% grant from Argyll & Islands Enterprise, we invested in two new quad pumps so we now have four diesel and four unleaded nozzles.  We are unable to get super unleaded on the island, but we are currently looking to get an LPG dispenser.  Although we have planning permission to extend our shop we have such a small site, that we are limited in the size we can extend to.  Therefore our fuel sales are the main source of income.  Due to the fact that all our fuel has to be shipped from the mainland and our sales volume is quite small compared to most, our prices are therefore relatively high – about 10ppl more than the nearest mainland station.  We open around 70 hours a week in summer, and a bit less in winter, and until recently there was just the two of us working, although we now have one member of staff who works weekends.  We are the largest of six filling stations on the island and the only one which doesn’t have another source of income, be it a general store or repair garage.

Despite this we have managed to make a reasonable living by increasing volume and shop sales rather than increasing our profit margin – which has hardly increased since we took over.  However, since July, when Shell stopped giving average prices to customers using their agency cards at non-Shell sites, our diesel sales have dropped by around 30%.  Many Shell card holders are farmers and local businesses, and instead of paying the extra they have decided to install their own diesel tanks and buy direct.  To add insult to injury our fuel supplier is selling diesel to these end users at less than they will sell to us, to fight off competition from another supplier.  This is the only business we know where the more you buy, the more you pay! 

So, we are now in the situation where we may have to restrict hours, particularly during the winter, in order that one of us can find another job.  Another option is to install an outdoor payment terminal to enable customers to purchase fuel when we are not there.

Not all is doom and gloom, we live on a wonderful island, with lovely people and if we go bankrupt I know where I’d rather pick up my benefits – that’s if they don’t close all the post offices!

Tula Rowley

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