The UK's fastest-growing service station business, Ascona, has announced a multi-million pound upgrade for one of its forecourt in Powys creating jobs. The Pembroke-headquartered business is investing £3m in a transformative redevelopment programme for its existing Machynlleth service station.

The investment is Ascona's largest in Wales to date and will create 12 new jobs at the site, including eight full-time and four part-time roles. The site will be upgraded to have a larger Nisa Retail store, giving an expanded retail footprint spanning 3,500 sq ft, and offer an extended range of products and food-to-go offerings.

It will also feature a car park with larger capacity, new rollover, jet car wash and fuel grades at each pump. Infrastructure for electric vehicle charging is also being planned though the final number of charging points is yet to be announced and subject to the local grid's capacity.

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Construction company Toureen Group has been appointed the main contractor for the project which is expected to complete by July.

Chief executive Darren Briggs said: "The redevelopment and modernisation of existing forecourts is at the core of our strategy so we are very excited to get this transformative programme underway. As our largest investment in Wales to date, through the upgrade of the site at Machynlleth we are ensuring that the new site provides our customers and the local community with a high quality roadside retail destination that caters to their specific needs.

He added: "We continue to explore other redevelopment opportunities across multiple sites in our portfolio with two major projects planned in Wales for 2023.”

Last year, the Welsh service station business made two further acquisitions as it targets 300 forecourts across the UK by 2026, buying BP-branded Brecon Road Service Station in Abergavenny and the Gulf-branded Dryslwyn Service Station in Llwyncelyn, Aberaeron. It takes its portfolio to 62 sites.

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The business now has workforce of more than 800 and serves 300,000 customers daily. It supplies four million litres of fuel a week.

Around two-thirds of its revenue are from fuel sales with the vast majority of the remainder retail related. The business is also looking to invest significant in the provision of electric vehicle charging points.

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