8 | Rubis
case. The markets each have different legis-
lation, regulations and infrastructure needs,
and even the products and the mindsets and
the landscape tend to be different. To be suc-
cessful, you cannot have a cookie-cutter ap-
proach. Instead, you have to be tailored to
those differences to be competitive. No sin-
gle approach is the best approach.”
Merely working through the supply chain
can also be a challenge because some of the
island ports are limited in terms of the ships
they can accommodate, which necessitates
the use of specialized shallow-water vessels
to deliver supplies to most locations.
Timing is also a crucial element thanks to
hurricane season in the late summer and fall,
which means the company needs to plan in
advance to have ample supply for peak sea-
sons.
“It’s vital to understand the markets,”
Nicholls says. “There’s no other way to de-
fine it.”
The company prides itself on offering a
superior customer experience, and Rubis has
partneredwith theNational Institute for Ser-
vice Excellence in Barbados to ensure service
station employees embrace high standards
of customer service, and it employs frequent
mystery shopper initiatives to verify that the
highest possible customer service levels are
