£2 A LITRE: What’s Really Happening at the Pump?!

Britain is now entering a £2 a litre world. So what’s really happening at the pump?! It means that, since February, a return trip in a car from London to Liverpool is £33 up, and a truck is £168 up!!! Almost six months after our last major fuel price discussion, Alex Wolfe is joined again by Tom Highland, Managing Director of Highland Group; Sarah Kind, VP Customer Success of EdgePetrol; and Gordon Balmer, Executive Director of the Petrol Retailers Association, alongside Gideon Carroll, Founder and CEO of EdgePetrol. Together, they look at what’s driving fuel prices higher, how retailers are coping and what £2 a litre means for drivers, businesses and the people running petrol stations. We get into rising wholesale costs, squeezed retailer margins, the cost of buying fuel, changing customer behaviour and the wider pressure on the economy. We also get into what the government could do, from fuel duty and VAT to supporting UK refining and North Sea production. See Alex's interview with Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/content/1fdf6289-bc99-4263-af79-da1060a09394?syn-25a6b1a6=1 Biographies Tom Highland is the Managing Director of Highland Group. A family-run fuel retail business for over 45 years with 6 sites across Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Suffolk. He has taken a leadership role in running the sites for 10 years. Winner of several Forecourt Trader awards, including the Special Recognition award in 2024. First to trial Co-op's new & Co-op fascia offer. The business currently has 5 sites with BP and 1 with Esso, and previously with Shell. Tom runs a TikTok account to show what it's like to run a petrol station from under the @thepetrolretailer channel. Sarah Kind is VP Customer Success at EdgePetrol, a fuel pricing and analytics platform supporting around 1,000 independent forecourts. She joined in 2018 to build the Customer Success function when the business was in its early stages, and has since moved into a commercial leadership role. Sarah works closely with retailers to help them navigate fuel pricing, improve performance, and stay competitive in a fast-changing market. She is passionate about building customer relationships and bringing practical insight to the complexities of fuel pricing. Gordon Balmer is the Executive Director of the UK Petrol Retail Association. Gordon has worked for the PRA since 2013, primarily as Commercial Manager, where he was responsible for all marketing and commercial activities and represented the PRA in meetings with a number of Government Departments. Gordon has extensive experience in the fuel industry, having worked for BP for 30 years. During this time he worked in fuel sales, strategic planning, project management, UK Fuel Card Manager and UK Country Manager where he was responsible for fuel cards, commercial fuel, automotive lubricants and fleet performance management. EdgePetrol's founder and CEO Gideon Carroll has a commodity trading background specifically gasoline trading. Gideon founded EdgePetrol in 2015 in the UK and has been at the forefront of helping independent retailers manage margins and profit. EdgePetrol proudly works with 33 of the top 50 independent retailers in the UK and is now expanding into the US market.  About The Host Alex Wolfe is CEO of the Renewable Transport Fuel Association, podcaster and host of the Wolfe Power Club Podcast, reaching 300,000 listeners weekly. He has over 20 years of experience in the energy industry, including senior roles at Certas Energy, responsibility for 900 fuel HGVs, and leading M&A activity within the UK fuel sector. Alex also chairs The Spectator Energy Summit and brings extensive experience across energy, transport and fuel markets to the Wolfe Power Club Podcast. Season Three is in Partnership with The Spectator Tickets for the upcoming The Spectator Energy Summit, on Monday 30th November 2026, are available on sale. Use code: WPC50 for 50% off your purchase If you would like to partner with The Spectator Energy Summit, please contact Alex on LinkedIn or [email protected] Follow Our Socials Website: https://www.wolfepowerclub.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WolfePowerClub LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wolfe-power-club/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Wolfe-Power-Club-61564466454360/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wolfepowerclub/?hl=en TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wolfe.power.club   Wolfe Power Club Production Team Director of Government Relations: Max Austin Designer: Nick Pelekanos Editor: Adam Woodward Social Media Manager: Bella Carter   This episode was produced at Studio 55