Asda evolves petrol forecourt networking technology

The UK supermarket sector is one of the country’s most competitive and in order to gain a sharper edge in this cut-throat environment, Asda has turned to managed network provider Evolve to support its plan to becoming Britain's second-largest grocer.

With scale essential, after acquiring additional sites from the Co-op in 2022 in a £600m deal, Asda turned to Evolve to provide infrastructure technology and managed connectivity services to ensure that customers could enjoy a broad range of products and services conveniently and reliably.

Under the Asda partnership, Evolve supplied a secure network and robust connection able to support fuel and store sales, third-party services and guest Wi-Fi. Fully managed network solutions, including SD-WAN as well as connectivity to third parties such as point-of-sale vendors and fuel tank polling, are essential for businesses in the forecourt sector to operate efficiently and deliver a seamless customer experience.

“We approached Evolve with this project as we knew it was a big ask to get everything up and running with limited downtime. The team got round this by setting the sites up to run on 4G/5G to ensure they remained operational. Temporary communications for installations were also used at the beginning of the project, and overnight installations were carried out to minimise disruption to operations,” said Ashley Cowley, Asda technology senior manager for Express Stores.

“Evolve managed the entire project from start to finish, and we now have a new tech stack that’s been specifically designed with point-of-sale, and all other connectivity-dependent elements in mind. Evolve's solution will enable us to operate more efficiently while streamlining operations and reducing downtime in future.”

Evolve specialises in network solutions for forecourts, including fuel stations and convenience stores. Its managed network services are designed to optimise supply chain management, logistics and store operations. This, it says, leads to improved profitability and customer satisfaction. Evolve added that it was confident in the strength of its fully managed network solutions and ability to connect to third parties.

A key challenge facing the Evolve team was that each of the new sites requiring connectivity faced time constraints, meaning it was imperative for its engineering and development teams to tailor the connectivity solution to fit the deadline. By investing in fully managed network solutions, Evolve says Asda forecourts can now also collect valuable data and analytics for more informed decision-making, and allowing it to tailor offerings.

“The fuel forecourt sector is highly competitive, where connectivity is key to success. Asda selected Evolve as its connectivity partner thanks to our two decades of extensive experience and expertise in the forecourt sector, and I’m incredibly proud of the service we delivered,” said Evolve CEO Alan Stephenson-Brown.

“We are well-versed in the dynamic nature of the market and the importance of keeping pace with customers and were able to deliver the Asda solution ahead of schedule.”

Founded in 1949 as Associated Dairies & Farm Stores Ltd, in 1963 the company turned what was once a theatre called The Queens, into the UK's first self-service supermarket and built its first supermarket from scratch two years later. In 1967, to expand its new trading format, Asda introduced the very first discounted petrol filling station in the UK. After decades of rapid growth, the company joined the Walmart family in 1999 and became part of the world's biggest retailer with the company’s first standalone petrol filling station launching in 2013.