Vivo Energy Kenya, the retailer of Shell-branded fuel products, will open 20 fuel stations in expansion plans to cement its position as the market leader.
Peter Murungi, the Managing Director of Vivo Energy Kenya, told Business Daily that the stations under the undisclosed amount of investment will be opened before the end of this year.
Vivo Energy Kenya controlled 21.7 percent of the local petroleum sales market as at December last year according to official data and the new stations will see the oil marketer pull further away from rivals.
“We are looking at opening 20 more stations across the country before the end of this year. I cannot disclose the investment value because this is an internal matter. We are the market leader and we want to strengthen this position,” Mr Murungi said on Tuesday.
Rival oil marketers including the French-owned Rubis and local dealers have been on an aggressive expansion campaign recently seeking to cut the dominance of Vivo Energy in the region’s biggest economy.
TotalEnergies Marketing Kenya is the second biggest player after Vivo Energy Kenya with a market share of 16.4 percent.
The share of Rubis Energy Kenya and Ola Energy stood at 8.6 percent and 6.7 percent respectively according to the data by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
But the expansion plans of the oil marketers are facing competition from counterfeit engine oils where unscrupulous businesses are riding on the brand of big oil marketers to pump fake lubricants.
Vivo Energy Kenya’s expansion plans have also received a major boost after the oil marketer launched an anti-counterfeit campaign stepping up the fight against illicit engine oils.
Consumers of Shell lubricants will dial *459* 200# and insert the code under the seal of the lubricant's cap to verify if the product is genuine under the campaign dubbed Jazika Na Shell.
The Anti-Counterfeit Agency estimates that fake oil engines have claimed over 20 percent of the petroleum market highlighting the need for oil marketers to intensify the war on illegal lubricants.
“Counterfeiting of engine oils has become a lucrative business in Kenya. This platform will help us counter the threat of counterfeits that Shell products are facing,” Mr Murungi added.
Vivo Energy Kenya reckons that the initiative is key to supporting the local manufacturing sector given that over 95 percent of the Shell lubricants are made at its plant in the coastal city of Mombasa.
