Astron Energy, which yesterday in Cape Town unveiled its new look-service stations, was on track to re-open its refinery by the end of this year, CEO Thabiet Booley said yesterday.
There has been some speculation among industry commentators that the refinery, which Glencore acquired with all of Chevron SA’s assets in 2019, and which has been offline since mid-2020 after a fire, about when it might re-open, as Engen closed its Durban refinery after a fire in late 2020, Shell and BP have halted operations at their Sapref refinery, while Sasol has been considering the future of its Natref refinery that it owns with Total.
Astron’s refinery has a crude oil capacity of 100 000 barrels and produces petrol diesel, jet fuel, marine oils, liquified gas, and other speciality products.
Booley said yesterday that in South Africa, the company’s key objectives were a safe and successful restart of the refinery, and to start the roll-out of the new look across the network of over 850 service stations.
He said the rebrand from Caltex to Astron Energy was the most significant change in the South African liquid fuels industry in three decades, and was an important step in the company’s ambition to become the next biggest fuel brand in South Africa.
The first Astron energy site to feature the new brand were Chuenespoort along the R37 in Limpopo, KwaMakhuta in Amanzimtoti, KwaZulu-Natal, Nandi in eThekwini and MACS in Brooklyn, Cape Town, the site of yesterday’s launch.
He said 20 regional teams were working simultaneously across the country to rebrand the forecourts Astron Energy - some of the logistics data includes an estimated 741 888 man hours on site, the installation of 1.3 million LED’s, the manufacture of 27 soccer fields worth of orange and charcoal forecourt canopy cladding, and the use of 6 224 holding down bolts for forecourt pylons.
The new brand also coincided with the introduction of a new fuel, Quartech 4-in-1 fuel, as well as a new rewards programme, in addition to participating in the existing UCount rewards programme.
Astron head of marketing Cambridge Mokanyane said global research showed all forecourts would ultimately migrate to “ultimate convenience”, offering everything from fuel to food options, banking facilities, online and e-commerce services and drop boxes for collecting deliveries.
He said in customer engagement surveys, clean, fresh and safe bathroom facilities were right at the top of what consumers expected when pulling into a forecourt. Questioned about any possible geographical expansion plans for the retail network, Booley said they would continue to open new service stations in line with demand, or where sufficient traffic volumes to warrant it.
BUSINESS REPORT