The village service station undercutting big names on fuel

REMARKABLE STORY OF THE SMALL GARAGE THAT KEEPS EXPANDING

- By OWEN HUGHES Chief Reporter [e-mail]

Rob Standring and Gemma Newell

A SMALL independent service station may lack the bulk buying power of the supermarket giants and big brand fuel stops. But that doesn't stop them regularly undercutting their rivals at the pumps.

Just this week they posted that petrol was at 1.29ppl - a good 5p a litre less than most supermarkets in the local area.

It is a far cry from 2013, when Rob Standring - a Land Rover Master Technician from Conwy Land Rover - took on the Rhydymwyn garage site near Mold. At that point his focus was very much on the workshop.

But it didn't take long for his ambition to grow beyond spanners and servicing. Rob began developing the entire site, introducing a more substantial and much-needed local convenience store to better serve the community.

In 2019, Gemma Newell, his partner and a physiotherapist by background, joined the business more actively. She took the reins on the fuel and retail side of operations. Then came the pandemic - a time of immense uncertainty, but also a turning point that would reshape their business forever.