Making history in Dungannon

A brand new Emo forecourt lights the way in County Tyrone.

Dungannon’s newest service station opened in September 2018 on the Eglish Road complete with state-of-the-art Spar store and Emo branded forecourt.

Owner Martin Daly is the third generation proprietor of the family business started by his grandmother in 1947.  From its humble beginnings as a small service station, Martin’s father Jim developed a retail offering on the site, but it wasn’t until Martin took over the reins last year that plans for a much larger high-convenience offering came to fruition. The site, which was knocked down and rebuilt between May and August of this year, now boasts a deli, cash machine, pay point, National Lottery, and off licence in addition to a completely modernised Emo forecourt.

When choosing a fuel partner, Daly’s Service Station had many offers to pick from, but for Martin, Emo was an easy decision. “I looked at a number of fuel suppliers but there were certain things I was looking for and Emo ticked all of those boxes,” says Martin. “The people behind the deal, the profile of the company in terms of reliability, and the pricing were all important, but one of the biggest catches for me was the branding. Emo’s branding looks really well during the day but particularly at night it really stands out as a clean, crisp design.”

His relationship with business development manager for Emo, Richard Irvine was also a key deciding factor in the decision making process.

“I have found Emo really easy to work with. I dealt with Richard directly from start to finish – he’s very knowledgeable about the fuel market and easy to get in touch with. There was a personal connection with Emo that I knew I could do business with, and so far I’ve had no regrets,” says Martin.

It is a combination of these factors that make Emo such an attractive proposition for all dealers, Richard believes.

“Dealers seem to like the way we approach them and how we build a relationship with them. It’s important to note that we are a local company, employing local people and when they contact us they get to talk to someone local. We’re there on the ground to help with anything they need.”

While the local angle is a touch Northern Ireland’s dealers appreciate, the network also has the benefit of being a part of one of Europe’s largest fuel suppliers; DCC Energy.

It is this global support that assists Emo in securing great value fuel packages for their dealers with a range of enticing add on services available.

But Richard is keen to stress that the Emo brand is flexible and can work with dealers to give them a tailored package that is right for them.

“We understand that their businesses don’t operate in the same way every single day of the year,” he says. “Throughout the year they will have different needs and individual requirements from their supplier. We are happy to discuss those and find the best methods to meet them.

The partnership between Daly’s Service Station and Emo has already proved to be valuable as Martin reports the site is trading strongly and is already surpassing targets only weeks after opening.

“I couldn’t even compare my fuel sales to where they were before but since opening under the Emo brand my sales have completely beaten the targets hands down,” says Martin.

Having experienced record growth in its first month, Richard believes the site has great potential within the Emo network.

“The site is on a very busy road with a massive hinterland population,” says Richard. “Being a brand new site it is modern and built to the highest specification for both the convenience and fuel offering.

“There’s undoubtedly a strong relationship between fuel and convenience and having a high-quality offering in-store can help the fuel business. Equally, a good fuel offer on a forecourt can massively benefit sales in the shop – the two are inextricably linked.”

The Dungannon-based forecourt has also exceeded expectations where Emo’s fuel card networks are concerned.

“With the strong national fuel card offering that we make available to dealers, and a wide range of accepted third party cards, we have found fuel card sales to be strong at this site because of the nature of where it is located as well as the surrounding local businesses.”

“We see Daly’s Service Station as further evidence of strong growth within the network and we appreciate the endorsement from dealers that Emo is a very credible and valuable fuel partner,” concludes Richard.