Food to love on bp’s forecourts

The recipe for growing value

Nearly 20 years ago, bp teamed up with Marks & Spencer to introduce high-quality groceries at company-owned retail stores in the UK. That partnership was followed by other successful collaborations in Europe, including REWE To Go stores on bp forecourts in Germany and EasyAuchan stores in Poland.

bp’s evolution of its fresh food and private-label offers is a great complement to these ‘food for later’ partnerships and the next logical step for bp’s convenience business.

“We expect drivers to spend more time at our sites as the need for EV charging becomes more widespread. Our convenience retail offer enhances our fuel and EV charging offers and it is also, for many people, the only reason they visit a bp store,” says Tracey. “In the UK, more than 50% of our transactions are now shop only, while in Germany, that figure is approximately 25%.”

Two stores testing the new freshly made menu in the UK saw double-digit growth in cafe food sales. And in Poland, an expanded burger selection drove an increase in sales of 17% above plan in the first 10 weeks alone.

In the coming years, bp aims to continue developing exclusive food and drink offers. Convenience is one of bp’s five transition growth engines (along with bioenergy, EV charging, renewables & power, and hydrogen), which bp expects to achieve levels of returns that compete well with the rest of bp’s business.

“Our stores are the part of bp that people come into contact with the most,” says Tracey. “We currently process more than 12 million transactions a day and we want to make each experience as high quality as possible, so our customers keep coming back for more.”

The science behind the sandwich

Over the past two years, food service specialist Jessica Gellett has tested dozens of types of bread, bacon, lettuce, cheese and more.

It’s part of her job helping bp teams around the UK and Europe to deliver freshly prepared food and barista coffee.

Take the new crispy herby chicken burger.

It starts with five swipes of butter on the bun, a quick toast on the grill, and then a zig zag of herby ranch dressing. Lettuce and red onion are layered under a crispy chicken fillet. Then shavings of Grana Padano cheese – placed on the sauce to prevent them slipping – finish off the sandwich.

“Delicious food that customers can customize to their own tastes helps to create an emotional connection with our brand,” says Jess. “It’s that offer, as much as the clean, well-lit and safe forecourts that, we believe, will have people returning to bp again and again.”

New and delicious

Seasonal offers provide bp customers with something new on a regular basis. Here are a few foods to look out for at bp stores

Why it matters

We know that customers have a choice, and we want them to choose bp. Food is an important part of everyone’s journey, and we aim to offer great choices, along with great services and amenities and a friendly experience – supported by seamless digital tools that make shopping with bp easier and engaging loyaty programmes that make it even better value.

According to Euromonitor, the convenience market globally is expected to grow around 4% per annum out to 2030, with food service growing at double that rate, around 8% per year.

Convenience is a core part of bp’s wider strategy and, in addition to expanding in the US and Europe, we’re also growing in markets, including India, Indonesia and China, to reach even more customers.

We’re aiming to double our convenience gross margin by 2030, invest around $15 billion in convenience and EV charging globally between 2023 and 2030, and grow customer touchpoints at our sites globally from 12 million a day in 2023 to more than 15 million a day by 2025.

Recognition for our food and drink

About bp

bp’s wider transformation is under way. While we’re mostly in oil & gas today, we’ve increased global investment into our lower carbon businesses, convenience stores and power trading from around 3% in 2019 to around 23% in 2023.