Rubis | 11
the truck fleet is scheduled for completion
by the end of March.
“We use local contractors to train the staff
and change the image,” Nicholls says. “Across
the board, it’s been very successful. In some
cases, we had to centrally train some contrac-
tors who then went to their own countries
and were able to execute very professional
work. Each station is unique and different,
which makes it a complex process, but we
feel it’s gone very well. We believe our sta-
tions are modern, clean, well-lit and very ap-
pealing, and we have seen some strong evi-
dence that our fuel customers agree.”
Going forward, Rubis will continue to
pursue growth via acquisition, but Nicholls
says the recent wave of transactions will re-
sult in a more limited set of acquisition op-
portunities in the future. But that does not
mean Rubis will not seek all available growth
opportunities in all of its fuel and lubricants
markets. As an example, Rubis would like to
grow its liquefied petroleum gas and cooking
gas business, which right now is only in a few
select markets, but has the potential to grow
elsewhere.
“It’s difficult to tell exactly where the op-
portunities will come,” he says. “Rubis is very
committed to the Caribbean and we’d like
to grow our presence. If we have the oppor-
tunity to grow through more acquisitions,
we would be glad to do so, but those are less
abundant now that many of the major com-
panies have completed their divestments.
There are still some, and howmany we’ll pur-
sue will depend on how many are available.”
