We had the chance to sit down with Chris Lord, owner of multi-generational family business Mill Hill Garage to discuss the site history, the JET brand and how they are using Edge to grow their business:
How did you get started with the site and what’s the history?
Mill Hill Garage’s history began when my Grandfather, a skilled mechanic, opened the site all the way back in 1953. It evolved from a mechanic to a car showroom where he and my Dad, a very natural salesperson, completely outperformed bigger dealerships all the way into the 2000s.
By the time they finally leased the showroom off, our two man sales team had a combined age of 130, so it was time for me to get involved with the forecourt. We moved the brand over to JET about seven or eight years ago and whilst we’re not quite back to where we were in our heyday, we are seeing the best financials we’ve had in a long time.
What do you like about the JET brand?
Before we switched to JET, we hadn’t changed in 35 years. It’s a reliable brand that people know and remember and it gives us a great point of difference in our particular market. What really sets JET apart though is the direct and efficient communication. Being able to speak directly with them and solve problems immediately is vital. Businesses are people, and with JET the people are amazing. They help keep my business moving forward.
You’re in a very competitive area. What other points of difference do you
have?
We can’t compete like for like with the large corporations. Being different is something large companies don’t like spending money on as their model depends on consistency. This is the advantage of being a smaller retailer. We made sure we chose a solid brand that nobody else in the area has, both on the canopy and on the shop, where we have SPAR. We make a big deal about being a family owned business and focus on fostering a stronger community connection than our competitors.
What made you sign up to JET’s EdgePetrol offer?
With operational costs increasing it’s vital for any retailer to extract an extra half penny of margin where they can. This is even more true for us as we operate in a tight market with big players and independent forecourts all around us. The JET and EdgePetrol collaboration gave us the opportunity to take control of that situation.
How has it gone so far?
I’ve managed to tweak the margin and see how volume has responded whilst knowing exactly what position that puts me in. We were able to answer questions around whether cheaper fuel won and retained more customers. We learnt that if we are any more than 2ppl above the local supermarket it can drive customers away, but not being able to match some of the more aggressive independents was less of any issue.
Our customers are happy to use us as long as we are not that far off the market. At times where our costs dictate we need to sit higher, we are aware of it and can make a proper decision about which direction we want to take.
The support from our Customer Success Manager, Joe, has been amazing to help us get to this point. As I mentioned before, businesses, even software ones, are all about people. The Edge team is always available to help me make sense of the data.
Where have you found the most value using EdgePetrol?
The easiest ROI to substantiate is doubling the profit on our premium grade fuel. We used EdgePetrol to find the sweet spot differential for JET Ultra versus the regular grades. Edge splits out consumer volume from bunkering, so without Edge I wouldn’t know how much is actually my margin and how much is commission. We now do 25% Key Fuels at the site and it’s grown our volumes, so it has a big impact.
This is the same for fuel cards, where before we signed up to Edge we were only able to estimate fuel card volume and therefore our actual net margin.
It can be weeks before you see certain invoices and then it’s time consuming to work it out. By the time this information comes it’s too late to make a change for the retail customer and the money is lost. EdgePetrol allows me to access the vital information I need to make business decisions in real-time.
I’ve even used some of the additional profit to upgrade to EdgePetrol’s new benchmarking tool!
What was the reason you decided to take on EdgeBenchmarking?
Other than having more profit to work with of course! We were one of the companies that had the opportunity to try it for a month when it was released and we found it reassuring to see whether or not our site was following the trend in the market. I’m looking at the trend for validation that I’m not making any mistakes with my pricing strategies. Benchmarking also allows me to look over time and identify anomalies in my data versus the market.
I’ve learnt how external factors such as weather impacts the site, stopping me from making sub-optimal decisions on rainy or sunny days. I know whether having a stock out or another incident has a longer-term impact on the site.
It keeps me honest too and I can now see whether or not I’m performing as well as can be expected!
Anything else to add?
Only that I’m not sure why any JET dealer wouldn’t sign up with EdgePetrol!
A complimentary EdgePetrol annual subscription is available to all JET dealers.
Interested in signing up or learning more? Get in touch with us here.
