In a world where fuel offers low margins, forecourt convenience store sales hold the key to profitability. Increase sales here and business will boom. It’s the simplest and potentially one of the cheapest investments that holds the key to boosting sales – the cleanliness of forecourt customers’ hands.
It sounds odd, but if a customer has sticky, dirty and smelly hands as a result of filling up, they are less inclined to buy food and drinks in your shop. It’s not rocket science, but it is a fact.
Why should this be the case?
- Did you know that fuel pump handles can be 11,000 times dirtier than a toilet seat and carry huge levels of bacteria and viruses?
- Were you aware that there’s a high risk of contracting serious illness from fuel pump handles, which may be resistant to antibiotics?
These rather unpalatable facts help to explain the barrier to food and drink purchases following fuelling up. So, what can be done to overcome this, after all, there are gloves on the forecourt, aren’t there?
The trouble, according to new research* commissioned by GripHero Ltd, is that four out of five people find it hard to locate disposable hand-protection, despite the fact that 66% of drivers actively hunt for it, and a further 8% ask forecourt attendants for hand-protection or wet-wipes.
So, hand-protection needs to be more readily available, unmissable and totally convenient. That’s where GripHero fits in. Designed by Chartered Mechanical Engineer and Managing Director of GripHero Oli Yeo, GripHero dispenses the world’s first anti-static, fully recyclable hand-protection solution from each and every nozzle handle, so there’s no need to search. It’s a simple, instant solution that works perfectly.
Unlike other forms of hand-protection, GripHero ensures that only one item is dispensed at a time, putting an end to wasteful clumps of gloves that often come out when customers attempt to retrieve conventional hand-protection – resulting in a lack of gloves for other customers, and unnecessary levels of plastic waste.
By placing dispensers on each and every fuel nozzle handle, GripHero hopes to end the all-too-common customer experience where drivers struggle to find hand-protection, due to empty or poorly located dispensers.
Instead of the 79% of drivers that regularly fill up their vehicles without using hand-protection, now every driver can easily protect their hands from contamination.
That’s important, because:
- 76% of drivers say they would be more likely to use a forecourt with hand-protection on every nozzle handle than a nearby forecourt without this service
- 72% would be more likely to make impromptu purchases of higher margin items such as snacks, coffee, ice cream and sandwiches
- 74% of drivers would be more likely to plan ahead to make larger purchases, including convenience shopping for 2 days’ worth of groceries, if they knew they could keep their hands clean while filling up
As Oli, says: “It’s a win, win situation for both the driver and the retailer, and it’s leading to huge demand for GripHero. We launched at the end of 2018 to large numbers of European forecourt groups, with significant domestic and international contracts already under discussion.”
GripHero will be launching the world’s first anti-static, oxo-biodegradable hand-protection solution at the Forecourt Show this April.
Created to meet demand in countries that do not have a recycling or composting infrastructure, the oxo-biodegradable material ensures that drivers can be certain of hand-protection at the pump, which degrades naturally in the environment within 12-24 months.*
The product meets legislative requirements in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, which stipulates that only oxo-biodegradable plastic can be used in the production of plastic bags or other disposable plastic objects. It also meets requirements set out by Saudi Arabia, while other countries in the Middle East, including Qatar and Oman, are likely to follow suit. Countries such as India and a number of African states are also expected to show interest in the product, which has significant benefits over other plastics that can take decades to degrade.
Oli Yeo, comments: “GripHero has been created to put the health and wellbeing of the customer at the heart of the forecourt, both in the avoidance of biological and chemical contamination from the fuel-nozzle and the prevention of potential ignition caused by static from standard gloves in the refuelling zone. It has, however, also been created to reduce waste.
“We offer fully recyclable hand-protection in countries that are able to recycle plastics, and we now offer oxo-biodegradable hand-protection for countries that either stipulate the used of oxo-biodegradable materials, or which do not have the facilities in place to cope with recycling. Here, the use of materials that biodegrade in conditions found within the natural environment is seen as vital to the prevention of unnecessary waste.”
Oli Yeo added: “We believe in using environmentally friendly materials and reducing unnecessary waste, helping forecourts to recycle where recycling solutions are available, and enabling countries without such solutions to minimize the impact of plastics in the environment; all while enabling drivers to maintain clean, uncontaminated hands, enhancing health and wellbeing.”
GripHero will be on stand S130 at The Forecourt Show in April, where customers can meet the team and trial GripHero for themselves.
Following on from the launch of the revolutionary new fuel-nozzle mounted hand-protection dispenser, GripHero has bold and brightly coloured recycling bins to help complete the loop on recycling plastics.
The bright pink bins are available to help an increasingly plastic-aware public dispose of GripHero’s anti-static and fully recyclable hand-protection bags, as well as other recyclable plastic. They provide forecourts with a simple plastic recycling solution – avoiding the need to separate recyclable plastic from general waste disposed by drivers in existing bins on the forecourt.
GripHero, which aims to reduce plastic waste by dispensing only one item of hand-protection at a time, rather than the clumps of gloves commonly withdrawn from conventional dispensers, is retailing the recycling bins at around half the price of other comparable recycling bins available on the open market.
Commenting on the launch of the bins, Oli Yeo said: “We believe in encouraging forecourts to complete the recycling circle.
“Having created a recyclable hand-protection product that sits on top of each and every fuel pump handle on the forecourt, we felt it only right to help forecourts collect plastic waste.
“As more people use hand-protection to avoid foul-smelling fuel contaminated hands and the cross-contamination of viruses such as the flu, it is more important than ever to recycle waste on the forecourt. By offering the bins at a significantly discounted rate, we hope to encourage forecourts to put these in to place, winning the good will of customers who want to avoid plastic waste finding its way into the environment.”
Anyone interested in how GripHero can benefit their specific application can find out more by visiting www.griphero.com or calling 01837 811035.