Supermarket’s cut-price petrol forces town filling station out of business

THE owner of one of the oldest petrol filling stations in Killarney, Co Kerry, yesterday claimed he had been forced out of business mainly because he could not compete with a new cut-price Tesco station.

Following the recent opening of the Tesco station, Killarney now claims to be among the cheapest towns in the country for petrol. Tesco is selling unleaded at 83.5 cent per litre and diesel at 76.6 cent, forcing some other local retailers to drop their prices accordingly. However, Dave Hegarty Snr, owner of the station closest to Tesco at Park Road, Killarney, yesterday locked up his Texaco pumps for the last time.

“We just couldn’t continue to operate on reduced margins. If we had a shop we might survive, but without a shop, a petrol station can’t remain in business nowadays. Margins are low enough anyway,” he said.

Mr Hegarty, who ran the business with his son, David Jnr, predicted that other stations in Killarney town and its hinterland would also close.

“This has been the experience in England and other countries where major supermarket chains can cut petrol prices and offer other incentives to customers,” he said. David Jnr said since Tesco opened for petrol, both their sales and their margins had fallen by 50%. He said the other 11 stations in the town were also taking a big hit.

“Tesco are also offering their supermarket customers an additional five cent a litre off petrol and there’s no way we could sell at that price and stay in business,” he said.

“Big supermarket chains are using petrol as a crowd-puller so that more people will come into their stores.”

The Hegarty business was founded by the late Mick Hegarty, in 1956, and was taken over by his son, David Snr, when he returned from the US in 1976.