Vivo Energy Group CEO Christian Chammas recently visited Uganda to launch the company’s convenience retailing stores at Shell Amber-court in Jinja.
During his tour to most of the sites, Chammas was pleased with the growth of the petroleum industry in Uganda, and expressed optimism about the industry’s potential for further growth.
When Shell first introduced differentiated fuels in 2005, the industry had about 32 players and 600 retail sites with a total market of 557 million litres per annum and an industry average throughput of 840,000 litres per annum. Today the industry has over 37 players, 877 retail sites with a total market of 1,565,000 million litres per annum.
This means the industry has grown over the years, increasing its significance to the Ugandan economy – paying taxes, employing people and enabling other businesses to operate and grow.
The industry has an ever increasing number of players and stations and there is an improved supply of petroleum products and no major stock outs in the recent past.
Chammas believes the players have consolidated and made the supply chains more efficient.
“There has been notable infrastructure development as well as new services offered at retail sites to improve services to motorists. Even though the industry is yet to be described as mature, it is developing and that is good news,” said Chammas.
“Retail is the heart of our business and is driving our growth across Africa. With over 1,700 Shell service stations in Africa, and 129 in Uganda, we have ambitious plans for further expansion and our aim is to provide an exceptional retail experience at each of our sites, reaching more people with better products and services wherever we do business hence becoming Africa’s most respected energy business,” Chammas said.
Vivo Energy Uganda Managing Director Hans Paulsen, said that the company is exploiting the regional opportunities and also benefiting from the increased storage capacity in Mombasa. “Recently Vivo Energy Kenya, opened a new 23million litre diesel storage tank and a 5 million litre petrol storage tank, therefore we have assured stock to meet market demands, which is key for our business,” Hans said.
