Sainsbury's agrees to sell Northern Ireland petrol stations to Go Forecourts

Sainsbury's has reached an agreement to sell all eight of its petrol station forecourts in Northern Ireland to forecourt operator Go Forecourts, according to a report published by Retail Week on October 18, 2026.

The transaction covers the full estate of petrol stations owned and operated by the supermarket chain across Northern Ireland. Under the terms of the deal, Go Forecourts will acquire all eight physical forecourt locations and take over their daily operations.

Site Modernization and Automation Plans

Following the completion of the transaction, Go Forecourts intends to carry out substantial changes to the acquired properties. The buyer has committed to making a significant infrastructure investment to update and upgrade the physical infrastructure across all eight locations.

As part of this investment program, Go Forecourts will transform the former Sainsbury's sites into modern, automated self-service pay-at-pump stations. This conversion will shift the operational model of the petrol stations to fully automated customer service.

According to Sainsbury's, Go Forecourts plans to "invest significantly in the sites, modernising the existing forecourts and converting them into convenient, accessible self-service pay at pump petrol stations".

Impact on Staff and Corporate Strategy

The transition to fully automated self-service forecourts will not cause job losses among existing workers at the sites. Sainsbury's confirmed that no staff redundancies will occur as a result of the sale and operational shift.

Current employees working at the eight petrol stations will remain with the retail company. Sainsbury's will redeploy all affected staff members to nearby Sainsbury's grocery store locations.

Caroline Holroyde, director of petrol and kiosk at Sainsbury's, publicly confirmed the details of the divestment agreement with Go Forecourts.

Sainsbury's explained that selling the Northern Ireland petrol forecourts aligns directly with its overarching corporate strategy. The retailer is actively refocusing its capital investments and management resources onto its core grocery retail business.

By divesting the eight petrol stations in Northern Ireland, Sainsbury's executes this strategy while securing redeployment options for its existing forecourt staff across its nearby supermarket network.