Body Shop and Jet plan link-up

The Body Shop is talking with petrol retailer Jet about opening franchises of its stores in the chain’s forecourt shops.

Mike Stannard, Jet’s marketing manager, says the company is talking to the Body Shop and dry cleaning chain Sketchley about opening franchises in the new format petrol stations.

A Body Shop spokesman says Jet has requested a meeting with the chain to discuss retail issues.

A move into petrol forecourts could undermine the Body Shop’s environmental credentials. At the end of last year, the chain launched a campaign in opposition to the policies operated by Shell in Nigeria, and backed a boycott of Shell’s products.

Jet is owned by US oil giant Conoco. Environmental lobby group Greenpeace says: “Oil companies are fundamentally not very good for the environment.”

Jet is testing a new forecourt retailing format in Walsall, West Midlands, which opened last week. It has introduced a franchise for chocolate retailer Thornton’s and has an in-store bakery and cashpoint, and is positioned as a “neighbourhood shop”.

The company says the new format is “a shop with petrol as one of the products”. If successful, the format will be introduced to the chain’s 600 UK forecourts.