Petrol seller Save goes bust

Save has blamed last year's fuel crisis for its troubles

The UK's largest independent petrol retailer, Save, has called in administrators and its chief executive has resigned, after its bankers called in their loans.

The group, which has 400 garages across the UK, said it had been experiencing difficult trading conditions since the fuel crisis.

It made a loss during last year's fuel protests, which saw forecourts run dry as demonstrators blocked oil refineries.

Forecourt price cuts since the crisis have also piled on the pressure, as the company found itself squeezed between the big oil giants and the supermarkets.

'Stoking public unrest'

In January, Save accused the government of 'stoking public unrest' over petrol prices and called on Gordon Brown to cut fuel duty which accounts for about 75% of the price of a litre of unleaded fuel.

Save also said that the crisis had scared off a number of suitors interested in buying the company.

The last set of results the group released, in August 2000, showed Save had seen a 24% jump in profits to £1.2m for the six months to the end of June.

But this, apparently, was not enough to compensate for the effects of the fuel crisis and save Save.

Shares in the group closed at 47.5p on Wednesday, valuing the company at around £47m.

Save is not the first independent fuel retailer to go to the wall.

The Petrol Retailers Association claims that about 1,000 independent sellers went out of business last year, because they were having to pay too much for the fuel they buy from the big oil companies.