The first supermarket to sell road fuels was Tesco who had a forecourt in 1972. Since then other grocery supermarkets have entered the market and the Co-op, Morrisons and Sainsbury now all have a large number of sites. The current number of supermarket sites is over 1,300 up from c 1,000 in 2000 and just 380 in 1991. They account for 16% of the over 8,400 forecourts in the UK.
Fuel sales through their sites account for a larger percentage of the total UK sales. Together DFA members they sell c 54 million litres of road fuel each day – or 43% of the total retail fuels market.
DFA member Mabanaft is a leading international petroleum product supply company based in Hamburg. Established in the UK for over 40 years, Mabanaft, and its subsidiary B.W.O.C., supply all types of fuels to independent distributors, retailers, supermarkets, the aviation and commercial / industrial sectors. Also it operates an independent fuel card to support its customers.
The large market share of DFA members has been achieved by selling only the highest quality fuels. Fuel is sourced from a variety of wholesalers and importers who also supply other independent retailers. The fuel standards are rigorously checked by the DFA members and by their suppliers and all fuels comply with BS/EN 228 for petrol and BS/EN 590 for diesel.