The balcony of Zuber Issa’s private meeting room offers views over a glassy expanse of water to snow-dusted hills in the distance. “When it’s like this, it’s Switzerland,” the billionaire entrepreneur said as he pointed out landmarks to The Sunday Times on Wednesday. “On a good, sunny day, it’s like the Middle East somewhere.” But this is not Zug or Dubai. It is Blackburn, with the Darwen Tower — built in 1898 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee — visible across the Fishmoor reservoir, and the Blackpool Tower shrouded in winter mist. Perhaps more remarkable is that Zuber’s brother, Mohsin, works from the same building. After a shared boy-racer career of more than two decades, which took them from a single petrol station in Bury to a global forecourts empire and a debt-fuelled takeover of Asda, Zuber parted ways professionally from his elder sibling in June last year. Mohsin, described by…

The last 18 months has been one of the most significant periods in Australia’s EV transition. In 2024, the Federal Government passed legislation to introduce a New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) for light vehicles. To be implemented from 2025, the NVES will play a significant role in helping Australians have more choices in cost-competitive low and zero-emission options, including electric vehicles.

If you’re one of the many truckies that has to work this festive season, it’s not all bad news – as BP has again teamed up with Healthy Heads in Trucks and Sheds to offer free Christmas dinners to people in the road transport, warehousing and logistics industries. As a way to say thank you to those hard-working people keeping Australia moving on December 25, truckies can call into one of 18 participating BP truck stops around the country for a meal and dessert on the house. Options include roast pork with roasted vegetables, steamed greens, apple sauce and gravy, or roast turkey with roasted vegetables, steamed greens, cranberry sauce and gravy. For dessert, you can choose between plum pudding or apple pie, both of which come with custard and ice-cream. The offer is available from 11am to 8pm on Wednesday December 25, while stocks last. To claim your free…

A service station in Melbourne’s south-east sold petrol for under a dollar per litre this morning to highlight the growing burden caused by the federal government’s fuel excise. Between 10am and 11am today APCO at Cranbourne West sold unleaded fuel at 99.9 cents – a price not seen for almost 20 years. Droves of motorists immediately swamped the servo, desperate to score themselves cheap fuel. Jasmine told 9News she managed to fill the fuel tank of her V8 Commodore for the first time in a while. “I can hardly drive this car,” she said. “I drive it once a week now because I can’t afford to.” Between 10 am and 11 am today APCO at Cranbourne West sold unleaded fuel at 99.9 cents. (Nine) Others planned ahead and arrived bearing jerry cans. Pensioner Pauline was there to make the most of the cheap fuel, too. “It’s ridiculous, I’m on a pension so you…

Amid closures and takeover efforts, new growth is part of strategy to reach 100,000 convenience stores globally by 2030, report says. Even as it moves forward with plans to close more than 400 underperforming 7-Eleven convenience stores in North America, global convenience-store company Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd. on Wednesday said it also plans to open 500 new stores in the United States and Canada through 2027, according to a new report by Reuters. A spokesperson for Tokyo-based Seven & i, the parent company of 7-Eleven Inc., confirmed for the news agency an earlier report by Kyodo News about the plan for North America, adding that it was part of Seven & I’s strategy to grow to 100,000 convenience stores in 30 countries and regions by 2030. The strategy comes as the company is also fighting to fend off a more than $47 billion takeover bid by Circle K brand owner Laval,…