Petrol station revamp to be revealed

A Black Country petrol station has been transformed as part of a project which has seen its store expanded and a coffee shop created.

The project to upgrade the BP garage, in St John's Road, Stourbridge, has taken two months to complete.

Bosses from the station, which now trades under the BP Connect banner, put the finishing touches to the scheme over the weekend. The new coffee shop, called The Wild Bean Cafe, was due to open today and it is hoped it may eventually generate new jobs in the town.

It will sell items such as baguettes and pizzas along with cakes and muffins. The site will be open until 8pm initially but bosses are planning to expand the hours to meet demand from users.

The aim of the re-development has been to create a one-stop shop for people to refuel their cars, pick up groceries or simply stop for refreshments on a long journey.

Manager Sarah Walker said the changes to the old building were "significant".

"The amount of work done on the site has been extensive," she said.

"The amount of space in the shop has been increased by a substantial amount with more goods now on offer to customers.

"The new coffee shop has also caused something of a stir and we have had lots of people coming in over the last few weeks to ask about it. It has been a very large scale project but now you can see the finished result taking shape we are very pleased."

Mrs Walker said they were currently only looking for one extra member of staff to join the team, but that more jobs could follow.

"It all depends on how successful the coffee shop is," she said.

"If it proves to be successful we may be looking to take on a few more people in the future to help run both it and the station.

"At the moment we are just waiting to see the response to the new shop."

The petrol station has remained open to customers throughout the development work.