forecourttech September 19

Technology for the evolving retail forecourt. 

ISSUE: 04 | September 2019 

KALIBRATE: 

HOW TO PREDICT THE IMPACT OF CHANGES 

TO YOUR FUEL RETAIL NETWORK 

EVENT NETWORKING: 

GET THE MOST OUT OF BRELLA’S AWARD 

WINNING SOFTWARE AT FORECOURTTECH ‘19

forecourttech 

Editors note 

With forecourttech fast approaching there has 

been little rest for the forecourttech team as we work 

on putting together the final touches for the event which 

takes place in Alicante, Spain on the 14 & 15 October. 

I am confident that this year’s event will be a great 

success. Now in our second year, we have been able to 

broaden our reach, attracting retailers from the Middle 

East and Africa, as well as Europe. Whilst the event 

is growing, we will still maintain the intimate business 

environment delegates told us they liked so much. 

We will once again be employing the latest in event 

meetings software, in partnership with Finnish company, 

Brella. Those that attended the inaugural event last 

year will already be familiar with the software, which has 

been used by the likes of Google, Samsung and Microsoft 

to ensure attendees meet the people they want 

to meet. We’ve outlined some of the key benefits of the 

award-winning networking software on page 8. 

This month we spoke with Aart Van Rooijen, Commercial 

Director of BigBrother page 11. The security 

specialists have enjoyed a transformation over the last 

few years as they fully embrace the opportunities technology 

presents. 

pagethree 

We also have a great article from Kalibrate on how 

to predict the impact of changes to your fuel retail 

network page 17 , and on page 4 you can take a look 

at the brand new forecourttech website launched this 

summer. 

Enjoy the issue. 

The forecourttech brand is owned and 

promoted by SAB Events Europe Ltd. All 

rights reserved. 

The views expressed in this magazine are 

those of the author and do not necessarily 

represent those of SAB Events Europe. No 

part of this electronic magazine may be 

copied or reproduced without the written consent 

of SAB Events Europe Ltd. 

Advertising: 

Stephen Bozdan 

stephen@sabevents.eu 

Features: 

Wendy Taylor 

wendy@sabevents.eu 

SAB Events Europe Ltd. 

The Quadrant 

Surrey 

KT17 4RH 

www.sabevents.eu 

#forecourttech @forecourttech www.forecourttech.com


A new look for 


This summer the forecourttech team launched a brand new website. Based on client feedback, 

the team worked hard to improve the site navigation, making it simpler to book and to access 

information. The site also features a cleaner, more modern look. 

Check out the website at www.forecourttech.com and stay tuned for further updates coming soon. 

pagefour 


Tomorrow’s 

Energy 

Management, 

Today. 

A cloud-based software suite 

to manage all your energy 

www.ICASA-group.com


News round-up 

Convenience and fuel retailer Circle K has 

announced plans to develop conversational 

applications, to enhance the shopping experience 

of its customers, in Scandinavia and 

the Baltic States. The company has partnered 

with technology firm Artificial Solutions. 

A Ford executive has predicted that self-driving 

cars will only last four years because they 

will be used so much. 

pagesix 

Experience is becoming the new table stakes 

in convenience retail, according to Joe Bona, 

president of New York-based global design 

and consulting firm, Bona Design Lab. 

Chinese ride-hailing giant DiDi Chuxing has 

announced a joint venture with BP to build EV 

charging infrastructure in China. 

Computer scientists at the University of 

California San Diego’s Jacobs School of 

Engineering have developed a smartphone 

app that can quickly and accurately detect 

the presence of an illegal credit or debit card 

skimmer installed on a fuel dispenser. 

Supermarkets are increasingly turning to 

automated solutions to help them meet 

customers’ demands for rapid in-store shopping 

and delivery, according to an article by 

PYMNTS.com. 



Mobile payment soution CarPay-Diem has 

reached the milestone of €10 million fuel payments 

in just 7 months. The app processes 

around 1,500 transactions a day. 

Google has fallen even further behind Amazon 

in the smart speaker race. The company 

lost half its market share and slipped into 

third place behind Amazon and Baidu. 

5G could make self-driving cars smarter and 

commuters safer. A 2-year-old technology 

called C-V2X could arrive in 5G-equipped 

cars by 2022, displacing a 20-year-old alternative 

that hasn’t caught on. 

pageseven 

Norwegian scientists have developed a material 

which can make hydrogen from water 

vapor, instead of liquid water. 

Total has opened its 1000 th solar-powered 

service station in Marrakesh, Morrocco. 

Futurist Ray Wills has said that all-electric 

cars like the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model 

3 will hit price parity with petrol cars by 2023. 

A flying car has been tested in Japan and 

was able to hover steadily for about a minute. 

Electronics firm NEC unveiled the technology 

at a facility in the city of Abiko. 



Technology enhanced 

networking at 

forecourttech ‘19 

With Brella’s award-winning networking software, meeting the right people for your business at 

forecourttech ‘19, has never been easier. The software, which has been used at some of the 

world’s largest events, allows attendees to match with delegates that have similar business interests, 

schedule and reschedule meetings and even allows attendees to build connections before 

the event even begins. 

pageeight 



forecourttech will launch Brella in the second week of September and to ensure attendees get the 

most from the software, we’ve put together our top tips for successful, tech-savvy networking. 

1. 

You have to be in 

it to win it. 

4. 

Failing to plan is 

planning to fail. 

If you don’t sign-up, think of all 

the valuable business 

connections you could be 

missing. Once the event 

launches you’ll be sent a link 

and a join code to get started. 

Plan ahead and save time. 

Schedule and reschedule 

meetings before the event and 

even start a dialogue with the inbuilt 

chat feature. 

2. 

You only get one chance 

at a first impression. 

Your profile represents you and 

your business to other 

5. 

Stress-free 

networking. 

pagenine 

delegates. Make sure you take 

With your meetings organised, 

the time to fill in your details, 

all that’s left to do is keep track 

select your interests and write a 

of your schedule. Download the 

catchy introduction. 

app from the App Store or 

Google Play and use your 

3. 

Find your perfect 

match(es). 

join code. The app will send you 

reminders and notfiy you of any 

agenda changes. 

Once your profile is complete 

Brella’s unique matchmaking 

algorithm will suggest the most 

If you have any questions about 

relevant connections based on 

Brella, please contact 

your interests. 

support@brella.io 


BigBrother Commercial Director, Aart Van Rooijen 

discusses the company’s transformation from a 

watcher to a gatherer of visual data.


Aart Van Rooijen, speaking at BigBrother’s 

Fuel Day event in 2019. 

one trillion (1.000.000.000.000). That is the number of images security technology 

firm, BigBrother, generates in one month. Now consider that the company has been 

operating for over 25 years and you start to get some idea about the scale of data 

the company has processed. 

pagetwelve 

“The more data you can process the better you get at 

applying artificial intelligence and deep learning models,” 

explained Aart van Rooijen, Commercial Director at 

BigBrother. 

“In the end it comes down to making things smarter, that is 

the challenge.” 

Traditionally a security and safety specialist, these two 

areas are still very much at the core of the Netherland’s 

based company’s operations, but in recent years an 

emerging priority for the business has been to find ways to 

optimise data collection and analytics by applying artificial 

intelligence to their peripheral ‘PumpWatch’ systems. By 

optimizing these processes, BigBrother is able to create 

added value for fuel station operators, giving them a better 

understanding of the end consumer and allows them to 

unlock new business opportunities. 

“There are companies who are much smarter than us 

when it comes to artificial intelligence, but what these 

scientific models are often missing is a practical application. 

What we are able to do is find ways to integrate these 

models into our technology to create something functional 

and practical for our customers that directly impacts their 

business results,” added Aart. 

Connecting with your customers 

One key success for BigBrother has been helping fuel stations 

to better connect with their customers, providing key 

insights that can see a previously anonymous customer 

transformed into a connected consumer. 

“In the end the products and innovation we make are 

based on what the end consumer is looking for. The end 

consumer wants a convenient, safe and personal customer 

journey at the gas station. We believe that our systems are 

crucial in delivering that,” said Aart. 

BigBrother’s omni-present security systems have spent 

years watching and whilst little may be known about the 

individual customers who visit the site, the information 

connected to their vehicle can be used to gain a better 

understanding of the customer and their behaviors. Does 

the customer buy premium or regular fuel? Do they react 

to pricing incentives? Do they purchase items from the 

shop? Do they use the car wash? By using forecourt data 

BigBrother has been able to help fuel station operators to 

answer these questions and start to build a picture of their 

customers so they can make more informed decisions and 

offer a more personalised service, explained Aart: “All that 

information is a crucial starting point for gas stations today 

to start growing toward a future where they really connect 

digitally with their customers. Our systems play a very 

important role in speeding up that process. 

“If gas stations don’t connect with their customer they will 

be out of business in the next 10-20 years. In convenience 

retail we are seeing that everything is connecting, making 

everything more convenient for customers. Petrol stations 

need to start connecting to the customers that they see 

daily fueling at their forecourts before it is too late. They 

can do this by identifying the behaviour of the car on the 

station.” 

In a further step to improve customer convenience, Pump- 

Watch has been used as a powerful support to online platforms 

such as mobile payment, creating a bridge between 

identification on site and online. This allows retailers to 



offer customers a more convenient payment method at the 

pump and even in the car wash. It also helps retailers to 

create a digital connection with customers where they can 

offer personalised offers and incentives. 

Safety and security first 

Safety and security are still the main priority for BigBrother 

and one of the company’s key priorities is to create predictive 

security and control models using AI and deep learning 

algorithms. At the same time forecourts are changing, 

less manpower is available on site and operators want 

solutions that are more convenient without compromising 

on safety. 

“People don’t have time anymore. The business roles are 

changing. Gas stations are becoming more complex and 

operators don’t have time to sit behind the screen. We really 

need to predict whether something is going on and then 

alert the relevant people who can deal with it,” explained 

Aart. 

“We know that retailers are not interested in images but are 

looking for evidence when something has happened. They 

look for an event. By using data from peripheral systems 

we are able to identify key events and link images to it. 

This way we provide the information the retailer is looking 

for. It becomes really exciting when we start combining 

these events with video analytics because we will be able 

to grade the risk, danger or likelihood that somebody is 

stealing. Soon PumpWatch will be telling retailers exactly 

what is wrong on their petrol station,” he added. 

To support this BigBrother has launched an audit centre in 

Romania, employing a team of experts to analyse footage. 

“Not only does this answer the demand we are getting from 

customers everyday but it also allows us to assess whether 

the smart software we are developing is making the right 

analogies. It means we can speed the process up and we 

can deliver analytics with a very high success rate in a very 

short term. I believe we are going to be there in 2020 in 

doing that,” said Aart. 

The changing fuel station 

BigBrother is also working to address the needs of the 

changing fuel station. The rise in alternative fuels such as 

LNG present their own safety issues and BigBrother’s cameras 

are able to ensure that only people who are trained in 

handling this type of fuel are able to access it, and when 

doing so are also using the correct safety equipment. 

The company is also working on an exciting project that 

analyses a person’s behaviour to identify any potential risks 

to people on the site. The technical solution converts video 

images to data about the walking profile of people. To do 

this, BigBrother extract information from the pixels of video 

systems and translate it into data about the way the person 

moves in the image. The company’s R&D department 

in collaboration with departments of the UMC Utrecht & Hogeschool 

Zuyd, is working to discover typical behaviours 

of aggressive or even drunk people so they can alert a fuel 

station operator before a situation even occurs. 

“Ultimately we work together on a common goal: to make 

the environment a step safer,” added Aart. 

For more information on BigBrother and their services 

visit www.bigbrother.nl or catch-up with Aart in person at 

forecourttech ’19. 

pagethirteen 



Supplier news 

Work across Certas Energy’s 35 UK sites 

to integrate Orbis Tech and EdgePetrol has 

been completed. The integration has facilitated 

the roll-out of EdgePetrol to the Certas 

Energy sites, and marks the start of a close 

alliance between the two companies 

Rontec Roadside Retail, one of the leading 

players in the UK forecourt industry, has 

awarded a five-year contract to ICASA to 

manage the back and head office for its stations 

with their ICASA Energy Software Suite. 

pagefourteen 

OpenWay has been recognized as ‘Best 

Solution Provider for Payment Systems in the 

Cloud’ at the PayTech Awards ceremony in 

London. The company received acclaim for 

the success of its project with Enfuce, the 

Nordic cloud-based issuing processor. 

In their latest blog post, the Kalibrate team 

examines if you can improve your own fuel 

network based on competitors’ strategies. 

Techniche has announced that Harvest Energy 

has selected its Urgent facilities and asset 

management platform, to support the company’s 

UK maintenance operation across almost 

90 company owned service stations. 

Registration is now open for the 2019 IFSF 

Conference in Budapest, Hungary from 5-6 

November. 


pagefifteen

HOW TO 

PREDICT THE 

IMPACT OF 

CHANGES TO 

YOUR FUEL 

RETAIL NETWORK 

By Carlos Palma 

Vice President, Global Client Services — Planning 

Nothing remains static in fuel and convenience 

retail. Every strategic action you take, and every 

adjustment a competitor makes, has an impact 

across your market.


pageeighteen 

Your competitors will open and close sites, you will 

have your own goals for expansion and rationalisation, and 

there are market factors that none of you has any control 

over. 

Network optimisation is an essential process for any retailer 

that wants to compete and succeed in the long term, how 

do you ensure that you are making the right strategic decisions 

when trying to improve your network? 

Finding the right locations for new sites 

For a new site to drive your required volumes and hit 

revenue targets, it has to be optimally situated. To choose 

these ideal locations, you need to fully understand the 

geographic spread of the area. 

Visual assessment of a location can give you an initial idea 

of traffic levels and demand, but it cannot help you accurately 

gauge how much fuel you will sell. 

Assessment of the following data points will provide a fuller 

picture: 

- Traffic volumes (current and historic) 

- Local demand (based on population and infrastructure) 

- Presence and strength of competition (or lack thereof) 

- Road infrastructure (the number of lanes, the speed limit, 

and the ease of accessibility, all of which can determine 

how effectively you can entice passing consumers) 

As well as looking at the present and past, you should 

also look toward the future. If you’re planning to build a 

new-to-industry site on a previously undeveloped plot, it 

could be 18 months or two years before the site opens for 

business – and a lot can change in that time. 

Is the surrounding area on the cusp of further growth and 

development, or is it set to depress? 

Some fuel retailers purposely seek out the growing locations 

and plan sites in these areas ahead of time, even 

before there is sufficient traffic and demographic support, 

so that they are the first to establish a presence. Of course, 

being this proactive requires accurate data and sophisticated 

predictive science. 

Analyzing the potenital of acquisiton targets 

Building new sites isn’t the only network expansion method. 

You may be able to find some existing fuel sites that you 

can acquire and improve. One enormous benefit of this 

approach is that it is a much faster process than designing 

and constructing new sites from scratch. 

Once you have evaluated a site’s location, demographics, 

and general infrastructure, you should then look at its performance 

potential. High volume is not the only indicator 

of a prime target. In fact, focusing on volume alone can be 

misleading and result in unwise investments. You have to 

consider each site through the prism of its future potential. 

A high-performing site may be a vastly overperforming one, 

due to the current owner or operator having effective tactics 

and strategy in place. If you were to take over that site, 

there would be no guarantee that you could replicate that 

level of success – especially without a clear understanding 

of what is driving the current retailer’s performance. 



By analyzing each site’s performance against its present 

and future potential, you can validate your decision-making 

and acquire only the sites that you can improve. 

Assessing the danger of cannibalisation 

No retailer opens a new site with the intention of stealing 

volume or revenue from its other sites, but it commonly 

happens, usually as a result of poor planning or misguided 

intuition. 

Avoiding cannibalisation should always be a priority in your 

network planning activity, because your long-term profitability 

depends on it. 

PROXIMITY 

The most common cause of cannibalisation is the construction 

of a new site in too close proximity to one or more of its 

siblings. 

For example, if a site is situated on an extremely busy, 

multi-lane road that has a high speed limit, it may be inaccessible 

(or almost) for consumers who are passing on the 

opposite side of the road. Building another site 2km away 

on the opposite side of the road might therefore be a wise 

decision – because this should mean that the two sites 

complement one another rather than competing. 

However, the proximity itself does not automatically mean 

that sibling sites will cannibalize. It depends how the two 

sites relate to each other, and whether they are serving the 

same consumers. 

ACTIONS WITHIN YOUR SITES 

Even changes that seem only positive and advantageous 

– such as the addition of new and improved facilities – can 

cause your sites to cannibalize, specifically where these 

changes result in inconsistency across certain sites. 

Another example. You add a convenience store to site 

A but not to site B (its nearest sibling). As a result of that 

change, site A would automatically become the more attractive 

site of the two, and may start to appropriate volume 

from site B, due to its enhanced facilities. The convenience 

store will generate additional revenue for its location and 

for your wider network, but this might not be enough to 

counteract the loss in profitability at the smaller site. 

difficult to identify what is really causing your fluctuations in 

volume. 

A 20% loss in volume following the addition of a new site 

may be cannibalization in action, but it could also be 

caused by competitor activity – such as new builds, closures, 

and expansion. 

IDENTIFYING POOR-PERFORMING SITES FOR CLOSURE 

Rationalisation is another fundamental part of optimizing 

your network and maximizing its overall profitability.This 

process is all about identifying the low-potential, underperforming 

sites that are poorly situated – the sites that have 

bleak futures ahead of them. The cost to serve each of 

these sites is draining profitability from the rest of your network, 

and they should therefore be candidates for closure 

or debranding. 

As with acquisition, the high-potential underperformers 

present opportunity for improvement – and your task is to 

turn them around rather than close them. If you do sacrifice 

these sites, it creates an opening for your smartest competitors 

to acquire them, optimise their performance, seize 

volume and revenue from your network, and increase their 

own market share. 

Using data and software to predict network optimisation 

outcomes 

The only way to accurately gauge every aspect that we’ve 

talked about here is to harness the latest technology. 

As a network planner today, you can make better decisions 

through data insights and by using software to simulate 

– with pinpoint accuracy – the effect that each proposed 

change would have on your network and on the market as 

a whole. 

The result? 

Validated decision-making. A sophisticated network planning 

tool such as Kalibrate Planning can help you to: 

- Evaluate the viability of locations for building new sites 

- Identify lucrative acquisition targets with high potential 

- Avoid cannibalising your existing network 

- Select the right sites for rationalisation 

pagenineteen 

What sorts of data are you collecting about your customer 

base? Advancements in technology mean that vehicles 

(and therefore consumers) can now be tracked anonymously 

through unique identifiers, enabling you to visualize 

how your changes are affecting consumption patterns. This 

includes site loyalty, giving you clear insight into whether 

your sites are cannibalizing, and to what extent. To enhance 

your offering at each site, you need to be gathering 

and analyzing data on your customers and acting on your 

findings. 

OTHER RETAILERS’ ACTIONS 

Ian Thompson, Managing Director of Kalibrate Planning 

will be discussing ‘Fuel retail pricing and network 

optimisation: From step change, to marginal gains’ at 

forecourttech ’19. 

For more information on Ian’s talk and other 

presentations please visit www.forecourttech.com 

Without the right market intelligence, it will always be 


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forecourttech September 19

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