Kerbside convenience: our moves to reimagine retail
Our convenience business provides customers on the move with quality food and beverage-led offers in convenient roadside locations. As customer needs evolve and change, so do we. Here’s a regular update of what’s happening in this fast-moving sector
Latest news in redefining convenience
bp is investing in the future of mobility
In recent years, bp has made significant investments in the future of mobility in the US, starting by introducing its bp pulse electric vehicle charging business to the US in 2021, and acquiring TravelCenters of America for $1.3 billion in 2023.
The investments are a massive expansion of bp’s convenience & mobility business, and, over time, will be part of the company’s transition into an integrated energy company that delivers long-term value for shareholders – and everyday people.
Take a look at four reasons why here.
Stapylton travel centre upgrade
bp in Australia is on a mission to transform our larger travel centre sites this year and through 2025. Stapylton, in Queensland – one of the first sites to receive a major retail upgrade – has just reopened.
The site is conveniently located just off the Pacific Highway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast and now has a refreshed wildbean cafe – including new, made-to-order food options – new store layouts and a complete new fuel system that will allow more product availability for customers.
Other new facilities include a truckers’ lounge with showers, washing machines and toilets.
“After months of work to upgrade our site at bp Stapylton, we’re re-opening with an offer that will provide our customers with a more convenient place to re-fuel, pick up snacks and grab a barista-made coffee on their journeys.”
Paul Auge, vice president of mobility and convenience at bp Australia and New Zealand
New stores in Australia and New Zealand
Wildbean cafe is ‘driving people cravey’ across Australia and New Zealand.
With an average of one million customer touchpoints at Aussie and Kiwi retail sites every day, we’re committed to providing customers with end-to-end mobility needs.
Whether it’s refuelling, charging up, grabbing a barista-made coffee or the variety of fresh food options, our customers can conveniently stop in or grab something on the go.
Our refreshed wildbean cafes are rolling out across Australia and New Zealand, with optimized store layouts to help customers find what they’re looking for.
At select sites, we’re trialling an extended food menu, where customers can opt for made-to-order food such as toasties and loaded fries.
Expanding partnership with Auchan in Poland
bp has signed a deal with Auchan, a leading retailer in Poland, to add 120 Easy Auchan stores to our retail sites in the country.
It follows a successful pilot scheme at nine sites, during which customers were able to try out popular new food choices, including fresh-baked bread, organic products, a wide range of fresh products, and a lot of products labelled with the Auchan brand.
Expected to be complete by the end of 2025, the expansion builds on bp’s existing convenience partnership with Auchan in Luxembourg. The deal also complements our ‘food for now’ offers in Poland under the wildbean cafe brand.
“The partnership with EasyAuchan enables us to access great-value products under a brand that is known and recognized, and bring that to the customer in a way that is easier than if we were to do it on our own.”
Jo Hayward, VP for convenience, Europe
Flagship Jio-bp mobility station
Chai was on the menu when we opened our first Jio-bp mobility station in Mumbai in November 2023.
Part of our joint venture with Reliance Industries, the Jio-bp network offers customers a wealth of products and services, including additivized fuels, Castrol Express oil changes, EV charging and, of course, wildbean cafe.
The wildbean cafe at the Mumbai mobility station offers a range of tasty snacks and beverages tailored with a distinct local flavour, including the brand’s signature coffee, masala chai, samosas and paneer tikka rolls.
Find out more about what’s on offer at the mobility station.
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Big deal for convenience partnership in Germany
Customers in Germany have loved stocking up on food for now and later at REWE To Go stores on our Aral forecourts. That’s set to continue thanks to a five-year extension to our partnership with one of the leading convenience specialists in the country.
The agreement with Lekkerland, REWE’s convenience specialist subsidiary, covers the supply of all Aral’s stores on company-owned retail sites. There are around 1,200 of these sites, of which 850 currently have REWE To Go stores.
This is bp’s largest European convenience supply agreement. Convenience, one of our five transition growth engines, is a key part of our strategy for growth as we transform to an integrated energy company.
“As the energy transition progresses, customers will spend more time at our sites charging their EVs. We will keep evolving our offers to meet their needs, transforming forecourt convenience with new product ranges, store layouts and digital solutions to give our customers what they want, where they want it.”
Jo Hayward, bp vice president, convenience Europe
Find out more in the press release.
Coast-to-coast convenience and mobility
In May 2023, bp completed the $1.3 billion acquisition of TravelCenters of America (TA) – a coast-to-coast network of large-scale mobility and convenience sites serving US highways.
The TA travel centres average 25 acres per site (an American football field is about an acre!) and offer drivers a huge range of amenities when they need a break on the road – from coffee to dining, stores to truck maintenance and repairs.
The acquisition added around 280 sites across 44 states to our retail network – almost doubling bp’s worldwide convenience gross margin overnight.
It complements our existing network stateside, as our bp, ampm or Thorntons LLC sites are mainly found at off-highway locations.
Find out more in the press release.
Watch this film
ampm hits the Big Apple
Our US convenience brand, ampm, is branching out from its West Coast roots with the opening of its first store in New York City.
Located in the Bronx, the new bp-owned and operated store is part of a pilot project to open four ampm sites in the New York market. It features bp branding on the forecourt for fuel and ampm’s food menu, including a hot deli and grocery.
The entire customer-centric experience is run using the operating processes of Thorntons, the renowned Kentucky-based fuel and convenience retailer that bp took full ownership of in 2021.
The new site joins the more than 1,000 stores in the chain located from southern California up to Washington state, that serve upwards of 3,500 different products.
Find out more in the press release.
Extending our winning partnership with M&S
bp and M&S Food have extended their convenience agreement until at least 2030, aiming to build on the success of the two companies’ 16-year collaboration and work together to evolve the forecourt offer as customers’ behaviour changes over the next decade.
The pair first teamed up in 2005 to introduce M&S Food stores at bp retail sites in the UK and transformed the market by offering a range of fresh, quality food for the customer on the move. M&S Food is now available at almost 300 bp-operated sites across the country.
Find out more about how the partnership has helped to change the way we shop in our feature article.
Taking full ownership of Thorntons in the US
bp has grown its presence in the well-established US convenience market, with the acquisition of the majority share of Thorntons in 2021.
The deal sees bp become a leading convenience operator in the Midwest, thanks to the brand’s 208 owned and operated locations across six states, including Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Florida.
David Lawler, chairman and president, bp America, said: “We have a proud history of high-quality retail brands across the country. Incorporating Thorntons into our business combines their customer-first culture with our existing US retail network and will help us to deliver our convenience strategy of offering customers what they want, where and when they want it.”
Find out more in the full press release.
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