Shell U.K. Ltd. has won the British Sandwich Association Award.
This annual prize is given to the company judged to have made the most outstanding contribution to Britain's sandwich industry.
This may seem a small accolade for a mighty oil company. However, it can be seen as a battle honor won in a tough war.
Supermarket chains have taken almost one fifth of the British motor fuels market (OGJ, Nov. 29, 1993, p. 33). Major oil companies are responding to the food store invasion by changing gasoline stations into convenience stores.
John Lawler is marketing manager of Shell Shops. He is an American marketing specialist drafted to bring pizzazz to the growing number of convenience shops in Shell's 2,300 British retail gasoline outlets. There are now 500 U.K. Shell shops.
"It is a common misconception that gasoline station shops compete with supermarkets," Lawler said. "Our shops compete with small, high street stores, We do not offer a large choice, but it is easy to stop by."
SANDWICH SALES
Shell sold more than 10 minion ($15 million) worth of sandwiches last year out of total U.K. sandwich sales of 1.5 billion ($2.25 billion).
Typically, 11% of a gasoline station's shop sales are for food. Other goods sold are soft drinks, groceries, confectionery, pet foods, car care products, lubricants, barbecue charcoal, toys, and newspapers.
Lawler cited an extreme case in which installation of a shop at a small London gasoline station required the number of fuel pumps to be cut. Gasoline sales rose 40% despite the station having fewer pumps. Also, Shell found only 40% of customers bought gasoline, while 60% used just the shop.
Lawler said oil companies have to compete by providing goods at least as well as traditional food retailers do, They also have to overcome expectations of what a gasoline station can provide.
MODERNIST TRIUMPH
To help change customer expectations, Shell is revamping its 38,000 gasoline stations outside the U.S. throughout the 1990s, under its retail visual identity (RVI) program.
In the U.K., this involves a 350 million ($525 million) investment. Shell last November began upgrading at a completion rate of about 10 stations/week.
RVI's new design for Shell stations has brought further unexpected praise, this time from a truly esoteric source.
World Architecture, journal of the International Academy of Architecture, describes gasoline stations as "...a triumph of Modem design. A delicate composition of solids and voids, machines and alphanumeric characters, it is one of the purest creations of technology in the public realm."
Of Shell's revamped stations, the magazine said, "In the sense of its geographical scope and its attention to detail, RVI is one of the greatest Modem architectural projects ever attempted."
One Shell manager was not awed by such praise. He said, "Being Philistines we don't look at design. We just look at results."
Copyright 1994 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
