The importance of gas station canopy fascia. Interview with Bren Steele (FormaShape)

Visual attractiveness has become more important than ever for any outdoor business. For gas stations, it is not only a question of catching the driver's eye with bright lights, flashy colours and tantalizing shapes, but about creating a brand identity which transmits the marketer's values to the consumer: modern, attractive, secure, reliable... We speak to industry professional Bren Steele from FormaShape to learn more about the design and manufacture of gas station canopy fascias.

Bren Steele is a former petroleum marketer now working internationally in gas station design and signage solutions. In 2007 Steele became the director of marketing and sales for FormaShape, a fibreglass manufacturer which brings innovative solutions to petroleum forecourt design. We discuss the advantages of using fibreglass composites for the design of gas station canopies, current market trends and the company´s development.

What does FormaShape do and where does it fit in the process of designing, manufacturing and installing canopies and signage at forecourts?

FormaShape is the world´s leading provider of fibreglass canopy fascia. We have applied our expertise in fibreglass to the petroleum forecourt image sector. We custom design all the facia systems in the canopy image in partnership with petroleum marketers and often with a globally recognized branding agency. Typically, our customers are large state-owned oil companies.

The first customer we had was Petro-Canada, the country´s former state brand. We have now imaged around 3,000 of their canopies over a 20-year relationship. We offer marketers a combination of unique shapes, colours and illumination all within a single formed panel shape. The final product creates a very modern, curvilinear look that is very different from traditional angular, monotone materials such as aluminium. Our products emphasise complex rounded shapes and curves, while aluminium products are typically square and angular. We portray a modern and softer image which specially appeals to women, according to market research.

FormaShape makes the design in collaboration with other companies, you manufacture the materials, and do you also carry out the installation?

The majority of the installations are actually done by signage companies or canopy installation companies. We ship the product to the site and it is installed by someone else. We consider sign companies to be important partners in our offering to the end customer.

At service stations, does FormaShape only work with canopies?

No. We have also done some beautiful pump shrouds and toppers. Major companies such as Gilbarco and Wayne have already tried making dispensers more attractive, but it is a huge investment for operators to remove the old pumps and install new ones. For a fraction of the cost we take the existing pump and dress it with a new, attractive shroud. We have also built column cladding solutions. We put a cladding or a shroud over that structure just to make it look more appealing and less industrial.

Which are the main benefits of FormaShape´s fibreglass solution compared to other materials?

Our product, aside from being aesthetically pleasing in its shape and surface, can also be illuminated. The traditional materials are aluminium facia, plastics and acrylic. The problem with aluminium is that you cannot backlight it. The plastics which you can backlight are not robust and durable. The benefit of fibreglass is that it combines durability with complex shapes and it can be illuminated from within.

“A key aspect of fibreglass composites is that it backlights, as opposed to aluminium which requires expensive front lighting” 

Fibreglass also offers designing advantages. We are seeing more designing and architecture companies realizing the benefits of fibreglass and composites as a new material. It opens up the design parameters - everything we build is a moulded product. We are not limited by typical fabrication parameters like aluminium, only available in a fixed flat panel. Some clients want a seamless image at their stations, and we have made specific panels from 5 to 7 meters long. It is a light weight product that improves the overall image of the canopy.

How did FormaShape start working with fibreglass?  Was it a way the company saw to differentiate itself from competitors?

FormaShape is owned by WhiteWater West industries, the largest waterpark company in the world. For 30 years the company has been building waterparks and waterslides around the world. We manufactured fibreglass waterslides for WhiteWater. In the late 90s Petro-Canada was trying to create a new image for their network. They were looking for a curvilinear, modern looking canopy and because of the complicated curve design the traditional materials could not manage it. So the architects called us to explore fibreglass waterslide technology as a solution for their new image. That is what launched us to the petroleum retailing image industry. Since then we have brought in over a dozen major clients and another two dozen small, independent clients. We now have petroleum clients in Canada, the United States, South America, Saudi Arabia and China, many of them with the largest market share in their region.

What are the design demands that are coming from gas stations? What are the currents aesthetical market trends?

One of the most popular trends I have seen in the last five years is the expansion of illumination and 3D shapes in canopy fascia systems. A significant amount of fuel is purchased after the sun goes down, so the night time appeal of a station is an important competitive advantage. Many of the images at forecourts are often broken down into flat versus 3D. Some of the big players in the industry like Shell have the RVIe program, a 3D-shaped illuminated canopy. They use an external mounted LED system because they cannot backlight the aluminium facia. The introduction of low-cost LED illumination is certainly a trend. That has benefited us because the use of externally mounted LED is more expensive than the use of a backlight LED system.

“LED lighting and narrower canopies are some of the current market trends in gas station design”

The other trend that we are seeing is that canopies are becoming narrower. Before canopies would have a tall fascia of about 1.5 meters. Now we are seeing canopy designs which target a 0.7 meter size.  A slicker and more modern looking design.

It seems like design is becoming a very big feature for gas stations, or any outdoor business. How important do you think it is for a gas station to have an attractive outdoor design?

The petroleum canopy is actually the largest retail sign in all the retail business. Most signs of banks or restaurants have a limited size of maybe a few meters wide. While canopies, especially in the U.S. where they have huge forecourts, the fascia is a great opportunity to create the identity for that location. The fascia image can drive a point of purchase decision from two or three blocks away.

I think the petroleum canopy is underrated in terms of its potential to be the hallmark image of the location. There are a lot companies that spend money on pylon signs, which is an important element of forecourt image, but it is also a huge expense in steel and engineering compared to the fascia system. If you spend more money on a canopy fascia and less on a single pylon sign, in my opinion, the canopy will give you a much greater impact on brand recognition, brand loyalty and daily throughput.

One of the biggest markets for FormaShape is developing countries, especially in South America and Asia. Why is that?

Typically, the large state-owned petroleum companies in developing countries have not had the kind of competition that you would see in North America or Europe, where there is a great deal of players and everybody is competing for customer loyalty.

So you have a large state-owned company which has enjoyed no competitors and by virtue of that their canopies have been neglected over time. Now there is more and more deregulation happening in the petroleum retail sector with a number of countries ‘opening up’. These state-owned companies face an urgent need to modernize and renew the brand experience. Mexico´s Pemex is currently going through that process, just like other South American countries before that. These companies are trying to protect their large share of the market, which is why they come to us.

“The petroleum canopy fascia is underrated” 

We work very closely with the marketing department of these companies, and their chosen brand agencies, to find the key values they want to transmit to their customers while rebranding their current image. Our fabricating materials are also low-cost and easy to install for the marketers.

The skill set necessary to install our canopies is much lower than the aluminium systems. Fiberglas gives us the ability to mould a complex shape into a single part, while aluminium needs various parts with complicated frames and supports which are very difficult to install correctly. Our system uses a simple attachment track with top and bottom fasteners through a single moulded panel. Minimal equipment, minimal skilled labour, minimal shut down time of the gas pump. 

What does FormaShape have in mind for 2016? Will it be entering any new markets or developing new products?

We are very keen to enter the European market. Currently we are very busy in South, Central America and in Asia. Now we are looking at developing more opportunities, distribution partners and more awareness within the design community in Europe. Coming to UNITI expo 2016 is a big deal for the company and we are very excited about exhibiting our products over in Europe.  

Written by Oscar Smith Diamante