Interview: How BP is gunning for grocery growth

With ambitious targets, a rapid expansion programme, and a strong new retail team, we speak with BP’s new retail operations director Joanne Hall about how grocery is at the heart of its growth plans.

When the average person thinks of BP,  they think of topping up their petrol. However, the fuel business is a hidden retail giant, with over half of BP’s customers now visiting purely to buy food.

Newly appointed UK retail operations director Joanne Hall, who joined the retailer in September last year from Sainsbury’s where she was regional stores director, is aiming to grow this further amid what she terms a “huge transformation” for the business.

The past year has seen BP make its mark in the grocery sector, having extended its partnership with M&S, expanded to new retail sites across the UK, launched a new loyalty pricing programme, and appointed alongside Hall a team of supermarket experts such as Lidl’s Claire Farrant to lead marketing in its convenience business and Waitrose lifer Teresa Lindley as UK trading director.

With ambitious retail targets, rapid expansion plans and a strong new team at the helm, Grocery Gazette sits down with Hall to find out how BP is gunning for grocery growth.

A period of “huge transformation”

BP certainly has big plans in the world of retail where it plans to double its convenience sites from 1,600 in 2022 to over 3,500 in 2030.

Hall says it is targeting growth at a compound annual growth rate of about 10% over the next seven years.

It is rapid growth but Hall says the scale of this transformation is what attracted her to join the business after a lifetime spent working at supermarket giants such as Sainsbury’s, The Co-op and Lidl.

BP will invest $15bn (£11.9bn) globally in convenience and EV charging over the next seven years to help it reach its hefty ambitions.

Hall says that while food is becoming increasingly important to both the business and its customers, BP’s investment into EV charging – it will open “hundreds of new dedicated BP Pulse EV charging hubs – is just as vital in growing its retail arm.

She explains: “BP’s retail sites aim to offer motorists almost everything they want or need as they fill up and charge their vehicles and we know charging an EV takes longer than filling up a tank of petrol so customers have more time to pick up a coffee, pick up a snack or do their shopping while they’re there.

“We’ve currently got a network of about 1,100 BP branded retail sites across the country right from the north of Scotland down to Cornwall and we operate one of the largest public EV charging networks in the UK.”

While 90% of the UK population live within a 20-minute drive of one of BP’s retail sites, Hall says it will still expand its convenience and mobility network.

Hall says BP’s network planning teams are working together closely to understand which locations will be important to customers both now and in the future.

“For us it is about understanding our customers, their energy, their convenience needs, providing them what they want, when they want and where they want it.”

Grocery growth and maintaining a strong relationship with M&S

BP’s retail offer includes around 300 M&S stores at its forecourts.

Hall says the firm has a “great, deep relationship” with M&S and the tie-up, which started in 2005, was extended last year to 2030.

She says:  “Over half of our customers now visit us purely to buy food and we offer food-for-now and our M&S Food for later”.

“Having M&S in our stores alongside the branded products and Wild Bean Cafe gives us a great opportunity to keep the ranges interesting for our customers.

“M&S is known for that frequent product development and for us, that helps keep things fresh and seasonal. We work closely with them to launch new lines that excite our customers and this year, we have introduced more than 200 new M&S products into the range.”

The M&S tie-up, along with its EV charging and car and jet washing offer help BP to differentiate itself from other forecourt businesses, according to Hall.

She explains that looking ahead, BP plans to further invest in areas that bring great opportunities to the business.

“We’ve been trialing some food-for-now offers in a couple of sites across the UK including Holbrook and Byron. Things like fish finger sandwiches and other new offers that increase dwell time have had really positive feedback.”

In 2024 these fresh food-for-now propositions will be rolled out to a further 10 stores.

Last year BP vice president for convenience for Europe Jo Hayward explained that as an international business, BP’s focus is “developing new lines tailored to different markets and customer tastes around the world, such as samosas in India, loaded fried in the Netherlands and freshly baked sandwiches in Germany.”

Hayward said that “new product development is going to be key both in range and demand.”

Hall says this is also the case across different areas of the UK.

Understanding its vast customer base and why they buy food at BP is key.

Hall says: “We’ve got some urban sites where it is very much is a destination mission and we’ve also got those transient roadside motorway sites where our convenience customers are telling us that they want grocery items for the next few days as well as something to eat immediately.

“Our B2B fleet customers visit us five times more frequently than our B2C customers so our food and coffee offer is particularly important to those on the move customers. Our research with EV customers is telling us that they want the same things our current convenience customers want today.”

Rewarding the BP shopper

Like its supermarket rivals, loyalty is a key focus for BP.

In September, BP launched a new loyalty pricing programme to give customers exclusive discounts on products bought at its stores.

The scheme will automatically apply discounts at the till on selected products, including from M&S Food and Wild Bean Cafe, when customers scan their BPme Rewards card or app.

“Building that consumer awareness of our loyalty programme and of its usage will be an ongoing focus for us,” Hall says.

She explains that the loyalty scheme allows the business to “readily delight customers with offers and rewards,” while helping BP to “understand the behaviours of our most loyal customers”.

Hall says it is gaining “fast tactical insights into individual transactions” which it uses to “continually improve the customer experience”.

So far, BP has seen “significant growth in both new and existing customers participating in the programme”.

“We’re seeing that customers want instant rewards for being part of a loyalty scheme. Along with the supermarkets that offer similar schemes, it’s changing the loyalty landscape to offer those participating more than just that earn and burn points offer.

“We see our loyalty pricing offer as one of the reasons that we believe customers choose and will continue to choose shopping with us.”

Looking ahead, Hall concludes that BP is “really keen that people get to know us as that growing retailer in in the UK.”

As it expands its sites and ramps up its focus on grocery, BP is no longer just a pitstop for fuel.