Rontec Brand Guidelines: Gerald Ronson’s Forecourt Group Built on Total’s UK Network

A forecourt veteran and a network bought from Total.

Rontec traces its roots to Heron Service Stations, the forecourt business that Gerald Ronson launched in 1966. The company says Heron opened the UK’s first self-service petrol station, in St Albans, and that Ronson went on to develop more than 1,000 forecourts. The Guardian reported in 2011 that he had developed 968 petrol stations in the UK over 45 years, and that Heron Service Stations had more than 200 sites in early 1992, before 150 of them were sold to Elf. The company says Ronson launched Snax 24 in 1992, operating BP-branded sites.

Rontec itself was created to buy a much larger network. In June 2011 The Guardian reported that Rontec Investments, a consortium made up of Ronson’s Snax 24, the investment bank Investec and the private equity group Grovepoint, had agreed to acquire the UK retail business of the fuel group Total: 810 service stations, of which 254 were to be sold on to Shell at the same time. Snax 24 was to run the remaining 556 Rontec sites, which the paper put at around 5% of the UK retail fuel network. The deal also took in Total’s Butler heating oil business and its Channel Islands and Isle of Man businesses.

The company and English Wikipedia give 2011 as Rontec’s founding year. City A.M., writing in 2015, said Ronson founded it in 2010 with Investec and Grovepoint, ahead of the Total purchase, and that he had bought out both partners in 2014. Over the year before the 2015 report, the paper added, Rontec had made a series of acquisitions as oil companies continued to sell forecourts to concentrate on exploration and production.

Two forecourt businesses, one banner and partner fascias.

In June 2015 Ronson merged his two forecourt businesses. City A.M. reported that Snax 24’s 44 sites were added to Rontec’s 166 forecourts, giving a group of 210 service stations including two motorway sites, and that the enlarged Rontec had signed a five-year fuel supply deal with BP. The company describes the merger as uniting two legacy brands under one banner.

Inside the shop, Rontec works through its own fascia and through partner brands. Its own convenience format is shop’n drive; the company says the first store opened in 2014 and that the format now runs at more than 167 forecourts, open around the clock, with Costa, Greggs and Subway counters. English Wikipedia dates the launch to 2015 and says the stores are supplied by the wholesaler Booker.

The second format is Morrisons Daily. Forecourt Trader reported in November 2019 that the partnership with the supermarket began in November 2016 with ten trial sites, that Morrisons then supplied its Daily fascia and grocery range to more than 50 of Rontec’s 250 forecourts, and that the wholesale agreement was being extended for ten years, with a smaller Morrisons Select concept to be trialled. By May 2024 the two had opened their 100th store together, in Knowsley near Liverpool, Talking Retail reported. It described Rontec as Morrisons’ longest-standing Daily franchise partner, with one of the first stores opened in Leicester in 2016, and said the contract had been extended to 2030. The Morrisons Daily range, the report said, combines a core convenience offer with fresh food to go and parts of the supermarket’s Market Street fresh food counters, and up to 40 Morrisons Savers products were stocked in all 100 Rontec-owned stores.

Food-to-go has grown alongside. City A.M. reported in February 2026 that Rontec’s parent, GMR Capital, had expanded its Greggs franchise business to 43 stores in the year to September 2025. The company’s other brands are wash’n drive car washes and Charge, its electric-vehicle charging offer; the same report said six ultra-fast charging hubs were in operation, with six more planned within nine months, and that GMR planned to extend existing sites to make room for larger convenience stores and more food partnerships. The company also noted that its charger rollout had been held back by delays in connecting to the high-powered grid.

How forecourt groups present themselves.

Fuel retailers rarely present a single face. Many forecourt groups run their stations under oil companies’ brands while building names of their own in the shop and the charging bay. Motor Fuel Group, the British operator, says its stations trade under six fuel brands — BP, Shell, Esso, Texaco, JET and Murco — alongside its own EV Power charging brand. In the United States, the British-founded EG Group renamed itself in 2026 after Cumberland Farms, its largest American store banner, and plans to convert hundreds more stores to that name, C-Store Dive reported.

Inside, the convenience store and the food-to-go counter carry much of the offer. MFG lists Londis, Budgens and Morrisons Daily shops alongside Greggs, Pret, Subway and Burger King, and in May 2026 hosted the first trial of Greggs Express, a compact self-service unit. Cumberland Farms plans to take Krispy Krunchy Chicken to 500 locations by 2030 and is piloting its own Maxi Fresh Bakery in Germany, according to the same publication.

Apps and maps do much of the remaining work. MFG’s Connect app lets drivers start and pay for charging sessions, and the station finder on its website covers both fuel stations and charging hubs. Coen Markets, the Pittsburgh-area chain that Cumberland Farms agreed to buy in March 2026, describes its Club Coen loyalty programme as part of its growth. In Australia, Ampol’s completion of its purchase of EG Australia in July 2026 came with plans for a wider rollout of the Woolworths Everyday Rewards programme across the sites, according to a TipRanks summary of Ampol’s announcement.

Charging is the newest addition. MFG announced plans in March 2021 for ultra-rapid chargers across 500 sites, said in July 2025 that it had passed 1,000 ultra-rapid bays, and since May 2026 has offered Plug & Charge across most of its network through Octopus Electroverse. The guides in this group set out what each company publishes about those formats, and what independent sources record about who owns them.

Fuel brands on the canopy, partner fascias on the shop.

Today Rontec Roadside Retail is based in London, with Ronson as chairman, as Forecourt Trader and Talking Retail describe him. The company says it runs more than 267 service stations across England and Wales under fuel brands including Esso, BP and Shell. City A.M. reported in February 2026 that GMR Capital’s property portfolio comprised 267 leasehold and freehold sites, including more than 200 petrol stations. The company calls itself one of the UK’s largest independent forecourt operators.

Recognition comes from the trade. Rontec says it won two awards at the Forecourt Trader Awards 2026, both sponsored by Booker: its Magor site near Caldicot, in Gwent, won the motorway services outlet category, and a second site won a London and South East category.

The company’s own pages show three layers of branding: the fuel brands on the forecourt, its shop’n drive and Morrisons Daily fascias on the store, and food partners such as Costa, Greggs and Subway inside. The Rontec name sits mainly on the station finder, the corporate site and its own wash and charging brands.

For a design guide, Rontec shows how an independent forecourt group can run one network under several fuel and retail brands at once. Compare Motor Fuel Group, another large UK independent forecourt operator, and BP, whose supply deal with the enlarged group City A.M. reported in 2015. For this guide we use a deep deep blue, a signal red and a cool grey with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Rontec’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.