ELEGANT FUEL
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forward Driving Elegant Fuel’s Rocco Strydom talks to South Africa Magazine. By Ian Armitage
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Elegant Fuels FOCUS energy
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niche is a distinct segment of a market. Defining your niche will position you as an expert in your chosen field and enable you to achieve business success. This is exactly what Elegant Fuel has gone about and largely succeeded in doing. “Success is always easier when you have clarity around your business,” says Elegant Fuel director Rocco Strydom. “We’re a wholesale distributer of all petroleum products at the best price and excellent service. We’re focused on that.” According to its website, the company was “born from the need that existed to look after smaller users of petroleum”. It only delivers depot-certified product to its clients over a “vast area” that includes Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West province and the Free State. Due to its attention to detail and personal service, the company has seen month-on-month growth for a few years running and is the preferred non-refining wholesaler to diesel depots, mines, garages, the agricultural sector and even public transport operators, Strydom says. Elegant Fuel currently supplies 15 millions litres of fuel per month to the end user, with a turnover of approximately R2 billion per annum. “We have hands on management and are open 24/7,” Mr Strydom says. “We are driving the business forward and recently launched our own retail brand. The demand has been incredible and several garages have been earmarked for rebranding this year.” Elegant Fuel provides a “cost effective alternative” and is now focused on “expanding brand through the re-branding of garages”, he adds. “We’ve learnt from hard-earned experience, have a never-say-die attitude and are fast becoming one of the leading suppliers of petroleum products in the northern provinces. “This year and for 2013 the main is to create more brand awareness around Sub Saharan Africa and grow the business.” Now is about raising its profile. www.southafricamag.com
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Elegant Fuels FOCUS energy
“Bringing your brand into people’s homes is very important,” Strydom says. “We’ve started rolling out our own brand of filling stations and basically what we’re doing is taking stations that have been neglected by other oil companies and just pouring money into it and picking it up. It’s been successful beyond our wildest imagination but we are eager for more and have a very ambitious five to 10 year plan to be the first company in South Africa to import our own fuel privately because you’re sitting amongst the big guys here, the large players that dominate the market, and we should be able to compete with them as we are almost standing on their shoulders. We’re largely dependant on them – the likes of Sasol etc. - but the dream is in five to 10 years to put up our own equipment and bring our own tankers into SA.” We talked with Strydom during the second week of South Africa’s recent truckers strike which ended on October 12 when employers and unions struck a deal that’ll see wage increases of 10 percent from March 2013, eight percent the following year and nine percent for 2015. The three-week strike hit deliveries of fuel, cash and consumer goods across the country and was defined by acts of violence. Trucks were set on fire, drivers were attacked with petrol bombs and rocks, and at least one person has died. 4
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The South African Petroleum Industry Association (SAPIA) warned people not to panic buy. Strydom called the situation “unfortunate”. “It’s political power play, that’s my opinion. What we are doing at the moment is that we’re employing security guards to escort the trucks to and from the depots. We just made a decision and said ‘the show must go on, we can’t stop delivering to our clients now’ and we absolutely went out of our way to change our business model to enable us to deliver. We are using an armed escort service and we’re still making our deliveries, which I think is great. It’s a risk but I think our customers are seeing the benefit of it. “This is all a follow on effect coming from Marikana. That kind of violence is then seen as a way of offsetting negotiations. It is unfortunate.” Elegant Fuel’s response is just another example of the firm’s never-say-die attitude. “We’re a 365, 24/7 business,” Strydom says. “It’s a total commitment, knowing what is going
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on a day to day basis. The competitive advantage that we have is that we can make decisions faster compared to big oil companies. We’ve four directors and we can make a conference call right away and that puts us two or three days ahead of everyone else.” Another differentiator is Elegant Fuel’s focus on CSR. CSR plays an integral part of its operations, offering training to unskilled individuals in order to create a platform to kick-start a career. “That’s essential to our business model. We also enjoy a Level 4 BEE rating and are certified by the Department of Energy, speaking volumes of our commitment to transformation within the petroleum industry ” Elegant Fuel has succeeded in creating a strong retail brand that consumers can identify with. END To learn more visit www.elegantfuel.com.
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