A lot of drivers go past the same petrol station every day without ever needing to pull in. Tasty Gallos, a Johannesburg chicken chain founded in 2020, has built its next move around that driver. It plans to open restaurants on BP forecourts, with the first pencilled in for the second quarter of 2027, once it has agreements with the BP dealers who would run them.
"A customer may pass the same station every day without needing to fill up," says founder Muhammed Gutta. "A restaurant gives the dealer a chance to bring that customer onto the site between fuel purchases and build more regular trade." The chain, which has more than a dozen outlets, is choosy about that dealer: it wants operators who will run the restaurant as a business rather than an add-on to the fuel.
The shop is doing the earning
A petrol station is built to sell fuel, but fuel is the thin part of the business. Its margins are tightly regulated and small, while the shop earns far better returns. Fuel used to bring in about 90% of a station's income, and the Fuel Retailers' Association says that share could fall to as little as 20%. More stations are chasing the same drivers: nearly 600 have opened since 2019, taking the total past 4,600.
The customers moved first. A survey of more than 1,000 shoppers for Nedbank's forecourt report, presented in March, found that 46% of people walking into forecourt stores are not buying fuel at all. They stop for coffee, a meal or a few groceries, and more than one in five treat the forecourt as a destination rather than a stopgap, especially younger, late-night and township shoppers.
Restaurants with a pump attached
Grocers got there first. Pick n Pay Express was on about 188 BP sites by mid-2025, and Woolworths on about 100 Engen forecourts. BP is now upgrading its network of more than 500 stations and plans up to 40 new sites by 2030, adding tyre changes, licence disc renewals and more restaurant partners.
Food is where it gets ambitious. In Rosebank, The Pantry by Marble sits beside a Sasol forecourt with a bakery, groceries and seating, and a property agency says people there do not simply stop, they stay. It has done well enough to open standalone stores in Hazelwood and Bassonia, with no pumps attached.
The next ideas are still on paper. WorkStation24, a round-the-clock coworking space, is planned next to the 24-hour BP on Koeberg Road in Milnerton, opening in the first quarter of 2027 according to its own website. Its pitch is the forecourt itself: already manned, floodlit, camera-covered and on armed response. Gyms are further off. Arrive Alive says only that some fuel brands are exploring gym pods.
For Tasty Gallos, it comes down to the dealers. "Our name goes above the door, so we care deeply about who's running it," Gutta says. Until those agreements are concluded, 2027 is a target rather than an opening date.
