Inner Space Stations, located on Hull Road in York, has re-launched a brand new BP service station with the aim of becoming the best site in the UK.
Owned by Graham Kennedy, the service station is 2,500 sq ft and offers a range of chilled and frozen meals, fresh fruit and vegetables. Inner Space Stations has also introduced Stone Willy’s Kitchen, offering gourmet pizza, freshly made wraps and hot takeaway snacks 24 hours a day.
Inner Space Stations has included unique design features throughout the new store, and selected over £100,000 worth of advanced refrigeration from Pastorfrigor GB, with the fridges to the rear of the shop incorporating micro technology and Clearvision PET frameless doors to house the extensive range of beers and wines, as well as selected premium wines from local suppliers York Wines and Field & Fawcett.
Simon Robinson, managing director at Pastorfrigor GB, said: “It was great to support Inner Space Stations who were looking to install the best in refrigeration technology in their ultramodern forecourt store.
“As an innovative business, our role is to keep ahead of the fast pace of change in retail businesses and develop new refrigeration technologies that works for retailers.
“We installed the new Genova Panorama MC cabinets in this store that run on the natural refrigerant R290. These cabinets are very energy efficient, with low noise and heat rejection that can only be achieved by using our patented Micro Channel evaporators.
“The remainder of the cabinets all feature 625mm shelving bays and shelf LED lighting to maximise merchandising and really make a statement as you walk into the store.”
Inner Space Stations has identified their new store as ‘the last shop before Mars’ with the ambition to one day operate in outer space. Internally, the ceiling lighting represents rocket launchers and staff now operate from a ‘mission control’ centre at the front of the store.
Mr Kennedy, managing director of Inner Space Stations, said: “Consumer spending habits are changing, with people making smaller purchases more frequently. We want to make sure that we are providing our customers with everything they need, at any time of the day, and as quickly as possible.
“The visual impact is extremely important to me. We’ve created a store in which people can see everything on offer from the moment they enter. We made the height of our fridges and shelving lower, so customers have sight of our full range from wherever they are stood within the store.
“The newly extended store, together with the touchless car wash, five valeting bays and self-storage units, makes us the one of most advanced retailers in the industry.”
Karen Peacock, Hull Road manager, added: “We have over 9,000 customers visiting our site each week, and they are not all here for fuel. The service station really does offer total convenience, 24 hours a day. We have included an additional till point to reduce queuing as speed of service is vital to customers and we are trying to follow the mantra that two is a queue.”
The 24-hour service station has been designed by award-winning architects Jennings Design and boasts a futuristic, ultramodern glass frontage, as well as a space-age finish throughout.