The long-term future of one of Kent’s oldest and most successful family-run forecourt operations, JC Morrison, has been significantly boosted with the acquisition of a third filling station, situated in the village of Barham near Canterbury.

The Gulf-supplied petrol retailer currently employs 60 staff across two sites and generates turnover of £4.65m through its Budgens forecourt shops with fuel throughput of 7.3 million litres.

Driving this latest initiative is Annabel Du Plessis, daughter of the company’s managing director, Bill Morrison, and the fourth generation of a family that started petrol retailing in 1922. An economics graduate, she recently returned to the business having worked for accountancy giant Ernst and Young. Her first major project was to secure investment for the acquisition and development of the freehold forecourt in Barham. Having achieved this, plans have now been submitted to develop the forecourt and introduce a mini supermarket, four times larger than the current shop.