A modern epos system designed for the forecourt environment can help retailers do just that, but while most operators have invested in highly functional epos solutions, many are not making the most of them, claims Jon Dunman, vice president of Torex Petrol & Convenience.

"Forecourts need to drive customer footfall and to do that they have to be able to look at their retail offering," he says. "If they use their epos system to its full potential it would make a huge difference to the operational functionality of their business. All retailers use the fuel element because they're from that background but we want to encourage them to use more of the systems they've got because it will pay back for them."

In a bid to encourage retailers to get the most out of their epos systems and grow margins, Torex has been holding 'Profit Clinics'. The service is delivered on-site to demonstrate how retailers can vary prices to optimise their cash margin and store profitability. The training sessions also aim to give retailers greater insight into the nature of their customer base and the local competition, helping them to set more appropriate prices and cater for local preferences.

Torex says that, on average, the sessions lead to a 2% increase in profits, equating to an average of £10,000 a year for each store. Top 50 Indie George Hammond, which operates seven BP-branded sites in Kent, achieved as much as a 2.5% total gross margin improvement in one store, following a session, and estimates that a 2% average will be achieved across all sites.

"Technology on its own can't run the business for you it's a combination of people, process and technology," says Dunman. "We're not telling retailers things they don't know, we're just encouraging them to look at things that they might not have looked at for months.

"For example, our Profit Clinics take them through the products that they're selling at a negative or reduced margin. This can happen after a promotion when the cost price has increased but the retailer hasn't updated their system. It's part of the process piece and an epos system can help with that."

Charles Richards, who runs St Blazey Service Station in Cornwall, trialled the Torex training session and hasn't looked back. "You may think you know your own shop, but you will be surprised," he says. "There are many ways in which you may not be pricing at the optimum to maximise profit. Being encouraged to think again about your customers, your local competition and your offer, you think more carefully about your pricing.

"We are in the middle of a difficult and challenging economic climate. It is all too easy to be focused on day-to-day activities and forget the basics. It is sometimes necessary to question our overall pricing strategy for the store as well as strategies for each category and individual lines. We changed our prices throughout the store and employed some of the strategies suggested. We had not kept up to date with all the price rises implemented by suppliers and found our margins on key lines had shrunk. It's difficult to quantify the impact until a whole year has passed and we can take factors such as seasonal adjustments into account, but anecdotally our profitability has definitely increased."