bp stores around the world are expanding the range of food and drinks available to customers, giving them the opportunity to pick up freshly prepared meals and nibbles – from customizable sandwiches to new, private-brand snacks.
“Customers tell us they want tasty and freshly prepared food options on the go,” says Tracey Clements, SVP of mobility & convenience, Europe. “We are constantly listening to give them what they want, when and where they want it, as we develop exciting, new menu options at our stores. The new dishes I’ve tasted have had me coming back for more.”
Menus at bp stores are developed with local tastes in mind. In the UK, that means made-to-order hot sandwiches and toasties, like the big breakfast bap with sausage, bacon, egg and Gouda cheese, and the avocado, halloumi and egg bap with gochujang-style ketchup. Both are on a new menu launching at 10 wildbean cafes in the UK this spring.
Meanwhile, at bp stores in the US – which include ampm, Thorntons and TravelCenters of America – customers have been able to pick up drinks like the Dirty Horchata – a mix of horchata and coffee in a frozen slush with a light cinnamon flavour. That launched at ampm stores for the summer season last year and ended up selling five times the anticipated volume. Smash Burgers have been gobbled up by customers as well, driving an increase in sales of burgers after they replaced the burger selection on the menu at TravelCenters of America in 2023.
“The US is such a big market, with big differences in how people shop based on their location,” says Greg Franks, SVP of mobility & convenience, Americas. “Our aim is to give them the food they love and take advantage of our scale and worldwide expertise to expand our food offer even further.”
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.”
