HERONHERONHeron Service Stations started in 1966 when Gerald Ronson saw an opportunity to develop a chain of own-brand company operated petrol filling stations promoting Green Shield (trading) stamps, which were still new in Britain. Named after his father H.E. RONson, Heron soon made an impact in South-east England, before selling its 30 garages to Shell in 1968. Heron continued developing sites for Shell/BP and Texaco, before reintroducing the brand around 1975. Only 26 or so sites were branded Heron, with the others carrying major brands (mainly Texaco) before the 150 service stations were sold to Mobil in 1977. Heron Corporation diversified into many other areas of property, but always retained an interest in the service stations. A third Heron chain flourished briefly in the late 1980s, before being sold to Elf. Finally in the mid-1990s, a fourth Heron chain was developed, although this could not use the brand for legal reasons so was known as Snax 24. These outlets too were sold, mainly to BP.
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The only known Heron map dates from 1978. A card cover shows a Heron station through the window of Gerald Ronson's favourite car, a large Daimler. Inside, a specially drawn Bartholomew map at 9 miles to the inch showed over 200 Heron locations. The extract from Bournemouth shows four such sites marked on the map with an H; most sold Texaco, not Heron branded petrol. |
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Text and layout © Ian Byrne, 1999-2002 |
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