About the Report
The Lumina Intelligence Forecourt Market Report 2025 provides a comprehensive overview of the UK forecourt retail market, analysing its size, structure, key drivers, and future growth opportunities. It offers detailed insight into the evolving role of forecourts as multi-purpose retail destinations, examining leading operators, supplier relationships, and consumer expectations. The report features exclusive research from Lumina Intelligence’s bespoke consumer and operator surveys, exploring shopper missions, dwell time trends, health and wellness influences, and food-to-go demand. With forward-looking market projections to 2028, it also addresses challenges such as the shift towards convenience, competition from evolving retail formats, and the need for enhanced digital engagement, empowering businesses with the knowledge to stay ahead in a rapidly changing landscape.
How to Use It
This report serves as a strategic planning tool for businesses operating within, or looking to enter, the forecourt retail channel. It helps operators benchmark their performance, identify emerging consumer priorities, and optimise their offering to boost dwell time and loyalty. Suppliers and wholesalers can use the insights to align product portfolios with evolving shopper behaviours and anticipate new retail partnerships. Investors and commercial teams can leverage market sizing, competitive analysis, and future outlook data to assess growth potential, sector resilience, and strategic investment opportunities across the convenience and forecourt sector.
Who Is It For?
The Lumina Intelligence Forecourt Market Report 2025 is essential for forecourt operators, suppliers, wholesalers, and investors seeking to understand the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities within the market. Whether you are an established operator refining your retail strategy, a supplier expanding into the forecourt channel, or an investor exploring emerging retail sectors, this report provides the critical insights needed to navigate the market and unlock future growth potential.
Questions This Report Answers
Market Context & Operator Landscape
- What are the top concerns facing forecourt operators in 2025?
- How are rising costs and new regulations (e.g. vape bans, business rates) impacting trading conditions?
- How are operators adapting their stores to offset declining fuel volumes and footfall?
Consumer Behaviour & Shopper Missions
- What are the key shopper missions taking place in forecourts, and how are they evolving?
- How do food to go, planned top-up and meal for tonight missions differ in shopper mindset and spend?
- What drives impulse purchases in forecourt settings — and how can brands capitalise?
Product & Category Insights
- Which categories are growing in importance for forecourt shoppers?
- What role do hot food, chilled meals, fresh produce and drinks play in driving spend?
- How do branded and own-label products influence shopper choice across different missions?
Location & Demographic Dynamics
- How do shopper behaviours differ across urban, semi-urban and rural forecourts?
- Which shopper demographics are most engaged with forecourts, and what are their needs?
- How do younger and more affluent consumers interact with forecourt retail formats?
Retail Innovation & Service Expansion
- What innovations are reshaping forecourt convenience (e.g. EV charging hubs, digital screens)?
- How are services like parcel collection, banking, and laundry becoming footfall drivers?
- What are the most important store features that make a forecourt “destination-worthy”?
Brand Opportunities
- What types of brands are succeeding in forecourts — and why?
- How can foodservice operators and CPG suppliers best partner with forecourt retailers?
- What role do digital loyalty schemes and in-store technology play in brand performance?
Executive Summary
- Key Market Insights
- Sector Challenges and Opportunities
- Consumer Trends and Evolving Shopper Behaviour
Lay of the Land
- Market Overview and Structure
- Graph: Current trading environment descriptors in the forecourt sector
- Graph: Most important business challenges
- Graph: Trading conditions expectations in the next 12 months?
- Key players, ownership models, and competitive dynamics
- Graph: Convenience key measures – Q1 2025
- Competitive Landscape: Leading Brands and Market Shares
- Fuel Market Analysis: Price Trends and Consumer Impact
- Graph: Forecourt type’s share of all forecourt trips
- EV Charging Expansion: Growth of Charging Infrastructure
- Graph: Top 5 brand of petrol station used to re-fuel/ EV charge
- Operator Insights and Performance
- Graph: Operator top 5 services on site
- Graph: Mode of transport used to visit outlet
- Graph: Biggest changes seen by operators in the last 12 months
- Key Trends Shaping Forecourt Retail
- Graph: Reasons to stop at a forecourt aside from charge/fuel
- Graph: Forecourts vs convenience average – psychographics of shoppers
- Graph: What does a good convenience store mean to you? (top five)
- Graph: What services would you like to see more of in forecourts? – top movers year on year
- Graph: In the next five years, how important will those services be for your forecourt shop?
- Graph: % of purchases made impulsively
- Graph: Reason for impulse purchase
- Graph: Location in store of impulse purchase
- Graph: Time of day of impulse purchase
Shopper Missions Deep Dive
- Understanding Core Shopper Missions
- Graph: Long-term mission growth in share, size of mission and importance vs Total Convenience. 2025 vs 2022
- The Rise of Food to Go and Coffee
- Graph: What services would you like to see more of in forecourts? – top movers year on year
- Graph: Occasion purchase made for – FTG missions trips %
- Graph: Where picked up in store – % trips
- Graph: Top 10 impulse sectors featuring in meal deals – % of occasions they feature in. Total Convenience average
- Graph: % of occasions when the category is purchased
- Graph: Top 10 products shoppers buy on 1-item and 2-item trips in forecourts
- Planned Top-Ups: Essential Purchases and Fresh Offerings
- Graph: Planned top-up mission share of forecourt missions, 2023-2025
- Graph: Living situation splits
- Graph: Reason for impulse purchase – top 5 – planned top up – forecourt
- Graph: Basket analysis – top 10 categories purchased on planned top-up missions – forecourt
- Graph: Top 5 product consideration factors, planned top-up forecourts vs total convenience
- Graph: Top 10 occasions purchased for, planned top-ups, forecourts vs total convenience
- Mode of transport to store, top-up planned forecourt vs average convenience
- Meal for Tonight: Quick Solutions on the Go
- Graph: Meal occasion total, daytime meal occasion and meal for tonight, share of forecourt missions with index versus total average convenience, 2023-2025
- Graph: Basket analysis – top 10 categories purchased on meal for tonight missions – forecourt
- Graph: Top 5 locations in store – meal for tonight, forecourt
- Graph: Drivers to store – meal for tonight, forecourt
- Impulse Purchases and Conversion Tactics
Local Distinctions: Urban, Semi-Urban, and Rural Forecourts
- Urban Forecourts
- Graph: Location of forecourt occasions – % share year on year
- Graph: Age of consumer – % share of occasions in forecourts by location
- Semi-Urban Forecourts
- Graph: Location of convenience store comparison and top over-indexing drivers to store – % share of occasions
- Rural Forecourts
- Graph: Services used by consumers in rural locations – occasions %
- Regional Performance and Consumer Preferences
- Graph: Forecourts split by top missions and location – occasions %
- Graph: Top consumption occasions purchased for – Forecourts split by location – occasions %
- Graph: Basket analysis (top five products) – Forecourts split by location – occasions each category features in %
- Graph: Consumer psychographics within forecourts split by location – respondent % agreeing to statement
The Future Outlook for Forecourts
- Market Growth Projections (2025–2028)
- The Evolution of Forecourt Formats
- Digital Transformation and Innovation
- Sustainability and Alternative Fuels
- Graph: In the future do you think electric vehicles will become mainstream, if so, when?
- Changing Consumer Priorities
- Graph: In the next five years, how important will the following services be for your site? – % responding with ‘extremely’ or ‘very important’
Brand Insights Available in the UK Forecourt Market Report 2025
Costa
- Insight on customer preferences and hot drinks performance in forecourts.
- Evaluation of Costa’s beverage-led strategy and store-level execution.
- Overview of digital and loyalty engagement initiatives.
EG On The Move
- Analysis of expansion plans and new store developments.
- Assessment of EG’s role in driving foodservice partnerships.
- Insight into urban forecourt positioning and innovation strategy.
BP Pulse
- Overview of retail and EV charging integration at BP Pulse sites.
- Insight into forecourt layout and food-to-go placement strategies.
- Evaluation of BP’s convenience-led retail evolution.
Tesco
- Insight into food-to-go category strategy and in-store merchandising.
- Evaluation of impulse purchase tactics and forecourt adaptation.
- Overview of Tesco’s meal deal integration in forecourts.
M&S
- Analysis of premium positioning in forecourt convenience formats.
- Insight into chilled and fresh food range expansion.
- Overview of shopper mission alignment and product segmentation.
Spar
- Overview of rural forecourt best practices and local produce sourcing.
- Insight into service-led differentiation (e.g. butchery, deli).
- Assessment of cross-category merchandising strategies.
Other Brands Mentioned
- Shell
- Popeyes
- Wild Bean Café
- Tesco Express
- Lidl
- Co-op
- Ascona
- Nisa
- Heineken
- Kepak
- Charlie Bingham’s
- Chefes
- Birdseye
- McCain
- Rowntree’s
- Fresh & Proper
- Draper’s Bakery
- Royal Mail
- Just Eat
- Wash.Me
- Diageo
Convenience Tracking Programme
Lumina Intelligence’s UK Convenience Tracking Programme (CTP) – survey based data collection with 1,500 responses weekly and 78,000 on an annual basis.
Bespoke Consumer Data Collection
1000 car owners were surveyed in January 2025 with findings compared to January 2024 – responding on their needs within
forecourt settings and their expectations for the future.
Bespoke Operator Data Collection
Leading forecourt operators were surveyed in January 2025 with findings compared to January 2024 – responding on their
sentiments on current trading and what the future will hold (e.g. EV).
Secondary External Sources
Lumina Intelligence also uses external sources including desk research and leading market websites.
