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Owner and Director of Solent Fuels Ltd, David Grannum, started his career in the oil Industry working for his father who was the owner of Vectis Oils on the Island, which his father formed in 1971. This was a Texaco authorised distributor, one of four distributor businesses on the Island at that time and consisted of three tanker drivers and six forecourt petrol stations. David’s role was to modernise the business, bringing in computerisation for sales order processing and after four years at Vectis Oils transferred to a new opportunity, when Texaco offered to purchase Vectis Oil’s distribution element. As part of the UK Texaco Equity Group, David was an integral part of the small but dynamic management team who were actively growing the distribution network across the South East, having several roles in addition to managing the Isle of Wight operation.
As the Regional Retail Manager David saw an opportunity for the group, which led to Texaco reintroducing a heritage brand called Regent, overseeing its brand development and promotion, which included overseeing the re-design of their website.
The Texaco Equity Group was sold to GB Oils in 2008 and David’s role transferred to GB Oils, which was later centralised becoming Certas Energy, losing its identity and localised depots.
In 2014 David was approached and agreed to take on the role of General Manager at Isle of Wight Fuels Ltd, the other local fuels distributor, managing all aspects of their sales and fuel terminal operations on the Island. Isle of Wight Fuels operated the only fuel terminal on the Island, but was in much need of updating. This led to David expanding his knowledge of all aspects of oil storage terminals especially around the key area of safety and compliance. He oversaw capital investment of £1.5 million which involved projects including: installation of ‘Safety Instrumented Systems’, re-instating the fuel berth jetty to its original condition and the rebuilding of a gasoline 1.6 million Litre mild steel vertical storage tank whilst maintaining continued supply.
Isle of Wight Fuels parent company MRH were looking to float the business and were subsequently taken over by their number two competitor in the market MFG, for £1.2 billion, becoming the largest retail group owning 900 petrol forecourts. The Terminal was sold to MFG as part of the sale agreement by MRH. However, to meet MFG’s own internal Health & Safety standards the Terminal still required significant investment in both the storage and dispensing of all grades of fuel and based on the above MFG reluctantly took the difficult decision to withdraw from the Isle of Wight market, closing Isle of Wight Fuels.
This left the Island in a vulnerable position, reliant solely upon supply from the mainland via the ferries. Both local fuel suppliers had relied upon the Island’s only terminal to operate efficiently by loading the road tankers with fuel on the Island, with the ability to deliver several loads from each road tanker on the same day.
Additional funding was sourced from a colleague within the industry and David formed Solent Fuels Ltd in 2021, creating and installing a brand-new fuel storage depot just off the Forest Road in Newport and leasing a fleet of small road tankers to deliver Domestic Heating Oil (Kerosene), Red Diesel (Gas Oil) to the Farming community and White Diesel to Hauliers, Builders, Plant Operators and Civil Engineers across the Isle of Wight.
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Telephone: 01983 654321
Email: sales@solentfuels.co.uk
Office Address: 3 Matthews Way, Seaview,
Isle of Wight PO34 5LB
Depot Address: Solent Fuels Depot,
off Forest Road, Newport,
Isle of Wight PO30 5QJ
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