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.