Asda’s forecourt strategy is offering a clear lesson for the wider convenience sector: when a service line is both customer-facing and revenue-generating, reliability matters as much as ownership.
The retailer, which operates about 800 forecourts across the UK, has been using a fully managed model with AIR-serv for air-and-vacuum machines, jet washes and rollover car washes. The arrangement is designed to keep equipment working at a high rate while shifting day-to-day respons...
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ibilities away from store staff and head office teams.
According to Asda, the model has helped deliver uptime of up to 98%, protecting income from services that can otherwise be difficult to administer across a large estate. The structure also removes the need for upfront capital outlay, with AIR-serv installing, maintaining and operating the equipment and both sides sharing the revenue it generates.
Stuart Peel, Asda’s petrol trading operations manager, said the incentive structure was central to the arrangement, because both parties benefit when the machines are available and trading. He added that telemetry built into the kit allows faults to be spotted quickly, often before a site team has noticed any problem.
The operational gains are significant. Under the managed model, AIR-serv handles servicing, maintenance, cash collection, chemical replenishment and customer issues such as refund requests or damage claims. That reduces pressure on forecourt staff, who no longer need to deal with cash retrieval from equipment sited away from the store or manage some of the security risks that come with it.
For retailers, that matters as much as the income itself. Forecourts can be vulnerable to minor collisions, vandalism and equipment failures, all of which carry hidden costs in time, labour and administration. By centralising the response, Asda says it has been able to simplify reporting and improve transparency, with machine data and transaction records feeding into an auditable revenue split.
The model also reflects a wider shift in forecourt operations towards service-led partnerships rather than asset-heavy ownership. AIR-serv says its offer is built around fully managed support, with replacement of damaged equipment included and a field service network designed to speed repairs. The company also says it manufactures its equipment in the UK.
The relationship has continued to evolve. In 2025, Asda and AIR-serv introduced Aquarama rollover car washes at multiple sites, part of a broader effort to modernise the estate and improve the customer offer.
That emphasis on resilience is mirrored elsewhere in Asda’s forecourt technology. Separately, the retailer has worked with managed network provider Evolve to strengthen connectivity across its petrol sites, while payments specialist Worldpay has supported upgrades to its forecourt payments infrastructure. Together, those projects point to a broader push to make forecourts more robust, more secure and easier to run at scale.
For operators under pressure to do more with less, the appeal of a fully managed model is obvious: less operational complexity, fewer security headaches and a sharper focus on keeping equipment available. Asda’s experience suggests that, in the right hands, forecourt services can become not just an added convenience, but a steadier and more efficient source of revenue.
Source: Noah Wire Services
