Gerald Ronson’s petrol stations are now valued at close to £1bn, having surged in value last year.
Accounts filed at Companies House show that GMR Capital, the parent company of Rontec, which runs 262 forecourts, made revenue of £1.2bn and a pretax profit of £64.2m in the 12 months to the end of September 2021. This was up from £1.1bn and £42.2m the previous year. In 2019, GMR reported revenue of £1.3bn and a pretax profit of £73.5m.
However, during the last financial year the value of the group’s forecourts jumped by nearly £155m to £908m, according to the accounts. Before Covid-19, the portfolio was valued at about £720m.
Ronson, who brought self-service petrol stations to Britain in the 1960s, has called Rontec his “fuck you” business because of its ability to generate cash in good economic times and bad. Despite being 82, Ronson is still said to drive hundreds of miles at weekends to inspect his forecourts, referring to Rontec as his “Saturday job”.
