Shell selling 185 filling stations a clear sign of what the future holds

The noise surrounding Shell’s blockbuster takeover of BG Group has meant that another strategic move by the oil behemoth has been overlooked. Shell has sold another 185 of it’s filling stations to independent retailers. This confirms the trend of the big oilcos to pull out of petrol retailing.

Read the full article at the Financial Times.

Shell has access to huge amounts of well researched market data and may have arrived at the reasonable conclusion that having large amounts of capital tied up in retail space dedicated to selling petrol and diesel may not be a sensible long term strategy. As electric and hybrid cars become more commonplace - UK sales of purely electric cars are up 114% in 2014 - drivers will be powering their cars at home, at work or at places where they would normally be parked for more than twenty minutes. Supermarkets, garden centres, railway stations will all become ‘filling stations’ as filling up becomes a dated and ultimately obsolete concept.

If your business serves the public and they park at your site whilst spending money with you, contact us about how you profit from this trend by fitting PV and charging points. .