bp unveils four upgraded UK retail sites designed around customer insight and preferences

• Four upgraded sites: Pinkham Way, Merrow, Budbrooke South and Poppleton – each showcasing an enhanced convenience offer
• Features include refreshed wildbean cafe and improved store design, with selected sites offering a refined M&S Food range
• Part of a trial: shaping the future of roadside retail, with plans to extend the new format to up to 20 locations in 2026

bp has reopened four UK retail sites following major upgrades designed to deliver a faster, more seamless experience for customers.

The refreshed stores – Pinkham Way in Barnet, Merrow in Guildford, Budbrooke South near Warwick and Poppleton near York – showcase bp’s latest design and convenience thinking, combining modern layouts, curated food ranges and enhanced service options. The pilots also include new self-checkout technology that lets customers pay for food and fuel in one transaction, making the experience faster and reducing queues.

Each site has been shaped by how different customer groups use roadside retail today – from time-pressed motorists and premium-focused shoppers, to digitally confident customers. They also reflect the different missions customers bring to each location. Urban sites typically serve more top-up shopping missions, while more transient roadside locations see higher demand for fresh, high-quality grab-and-go options. All four locations also offer EV charging, with significant upgrades at Merrow and Pinkham to support growing demand for fast, reliable charging.

Leading the way is bp’s Pinkham Way site in North London, which reopened on 29th October. Located just off the North Circular Road, the site now offers a brighter, more welcoming environment with self-checkouts and an upgraded wildbean cafe serving barista-made coffee, quick-service machine coffee, freshly made ciabattas and smoothies. The M&S Food range has been refined to better suit on-the-go customers, with options such as ‘picky bits’ like mini sausage rolls. The redesigned layout makes it easier for customers to grab quality coffee, shop quickly, and refuel or charge comfortably. Pinkham is also home to a bp pulse EV charging hub, introduced last year and equipped with 300kW chargers.

bp Merrow reopened on 5th November and has been redesigned to support customers picking up food for later. The site is the first bp store in the UK to feature its own M&S bakery, bringing fresh bread and pastries baked throughout the day. Merrow also offers a broader chilled, ambient and frozen range for dinner-for-later missions, plus a dedicated gifting section with bouquets, potted plants, boxed chocolates, cards, wrapping paper and a wide selection of wine and fizz.

These upgrades align with customers who enjoy strong product variety, rely on forecourts for top-ups, and appreciate premium choices when shopping for home or on-the-way gifting. Merrow has also recently received an EV charging upgrade, with an increased number of bays to support more customers and reduce waiting times.

bp Budbrooke South reopened on the 26th November and Poppleton on 3rd December, completing the store refreshes for this year. Budbrooke South is aimed at on-the-go customers, while Poppleton is targeted at customers looking to do top-up-shops for dinner.

Jo Hayward, bp vice president mobility & convenience UK retail, said: “These sites mark the next step in evolving bp’s convenience offer. We’ve listened to what local customers want and redesigned our stores around those insights, whilst maintaining something that is scalable and replicable.”

These four locations form a ‘test and learn’ programme for bp’s new convenience formats across the UK. The trial is currently evaluating two formats. The top-up shop model, tested at the Poppleton and Merrow sites, is designed for short-cycle grocery restocks and features an expanded premium food offer. The on-the-go format, at Pinkham and Budbrooke South, focuses on quick, high-quality grab-and-go options with an enhanced wildbean cafe offering. A third multi-mission format – combining elements of both food-for-now and food-for-later missions – will launch next year. Each concept is shaped by local customer insights, and if successful, bp plans to roll out the new formats to up to 20 additional sites in 2026.