Northampton couple awarded top accolade

A Northampton couple have been honoured at a top industry awards.

Husband and wife duo, Zarfeen and Ali Sadrudin, who run The Red Lion Truck Stop, on Weedon Road, was named as the winner of the Best Truck Stop Award at the Gulf Roadside Services EXPO & Awards.

The national awards are organised by Certas Energy’s Roadside Services division, which supports more than 400 service station sites across the UK, many of which are small, independent businesses.

Zarfeen, 40, and Ali, 38, who have run the business for 17 years, won the award for the impressive range of services available at their truck stop, which includes 220 truck parking spaces, a restaurant and bar with international cuisine, 24/7 shop, truck wash, and even gaming facilities.

Mum-of-three, Zarfeen said: “We’re ecstatic! This has been 17 years in the making. In the early days, it was really challenging when we were running everything as a duo, but now we have a fantastic team in place. We couldn’t have done this without their hard work. Every push to keep improving has been worth it.”

Their plans for the future include installing EV charging for both cars and HVGs.

The award was presented at a special ceremony held at Carden Park in Chester on Thursday, March 21, which gave independent service station owners like Zarfeen and Ali the opportunity to meet their contemporaries. It was also an opportunity to learn about future renewable energy solutions, such as the launch of EvoUltra, renewable diesel for retail sites, and Evolo, Certas’s new EV charging solution.

Richard Billington, Managing Director Certas Roadside Services, said: “These awards are our way of celebrating the small businesses which show great business acumen and innovation in a tough industry.

“Being a small business owner can be very challenging and you can often feel quite isolated, so this is our way of thanking the teams that make up a network of service stations that keep our country moving.”

The award was sponsored by SNAP. The SNAP payment system enables HGV operators, managers and drivers to use cashless transactions across Certas Energy’s bunker network to pay for secure parking and truck wash facilities.