A personal approach to fuel retail

January 6, 2025

Javier Plata Blanco, president of Zeuss, talks to The Energy Year about how the company has taken advantage of fuel-storage opportunities in Colombia. Zeuss is dedicated to the wholesale distribution of fossil fuels and synthetic, semi-synthetic and mineral lubricants, with more than 260 service stations in Colombia and five storage and distribution facilities.

How has Zeuss responded to the opportunities in fuel storage in Colombia?
Fuel storage has been an important area in Colombia. Wholesalers normally tend to stick close to Ecopetrol’s supply centres, which are spread across the country. Nevertheless, Colombia has made very important steps to consolidate its storage network in the last three to four years. The country has built its own storage, and a lease scheme has developed between wholesalers and directly with Ecopetrol.
Moreover, the second- or third-most important consumption centre in the country is the region of Antioquia. It is here where Zeuss is the only wholesaler that has expanded its storage capacity, having 162,000 barrels of storage. That puts us in an important strategic position.
Despite a contraction of the market this year, given the increase in the petrol price and other geopolitical reasons, we see great potential in the storage business moving forwards. There will be a need for more storage capacity in the country. We have anticipated this trend and are strategically positioned to help our supplier Ecopetrol and also other wholesalers that might not have enough capacity.
With this in mind, we have also acquired an important plot in Sebastopol (Chimita), which is at the heart of the country’s fuel operations. We already have the plot with its corresponding licences. This means that we are looking at the feasibility of the project so we can structure it and present ourselves as a major player able to serve large consumers.
In terms of plants, we have a plant in Cartago, in the coffee-growing region, set up and established with another wholesaler, Petromil, and we will begin to participate in Colombia’s third-largest market, Valle del Cauca in the southwest, with our presence in Yumbo.

How important is your retail station network, and what strategy have you rolled out to expand it?
Zeuss is part of the ZER Group, which among other things is involved in the lubricant business. Zeuss is a retailer, but there are other companies under its umbrella, such as Estinsa, which operates 14 retail stations. We are an important piece of the downstream puzzle in Colombia at the fuel distribution level.
Most importantly, we are one of two retailers in Colombia that are 100% Colombian. We take pride in this, as we are competing with international companies.
Zeuss currently has 261 retail stations. This makes us the sixth-largest company in the country in terms of the number of retail stations and represents a more than 4% market share.
Moreover, we are a brand that is very present and visible in Antioquia, a department where we are among the market leaders. We have a well-developed corridor all the way to the Caribbean coast. However, the strategy that led to our current position followed complex and well-considered directives.
At first, we started targeting markets that were not important for other retailers, such as small towns. Business in these markets requires a different strategy from that in major cities. Our customers are not part of a system. They have a name and belong to our organisation.
We have a very personalised service model, and we reach places that many operators do not reach. We take care of details in all our retail stations, whether in Medellín or in the smallest village.

 

How are you increasing efficiency, as well as increasing loyalty in regions where you are present?
We have internal software developments, and we make applications in-house. We are now reviewing them to see if we can enhance them further or if we can strengthen them with external partners. When we do not have the proper expertise, we team up with allies.
From the operational point of view, we are looking for operational excellence with internal software and also a partner that will help us to be more efficient. We are also unifying our POS [point-of-sale] system, our system for direct customer sales. We are firstly doing so in our own network by trying to synchronise the entire network with this POS system.
In addition to this, we have our loyalty programme, which is tailored to the region we cover. Loyalty programmes are normally done with major brands, such as Éxito and Casino, but these are not present in some of the remote areas we cover.
The same goes for our implementation of Industry 4.0. Many of our customers are people living in villages, which means that digital transformation in these areas advances at a different pace. We sit down with them to try to understand what their needs are and adapt to the reality they have. Thanks to this we have created loyalty bonds, which have a 98-99% renewal rate. Our clients don’t leave.

What makes your products unique in an increasingly competitive market?
We offer an array of different products, such as Diesel Ecoextreme and Extra Turbo 99+ petrol, in addition to regular petrol and diesel. These products are of maximum quality. For example, Diesel Ecoextreme provides an engine with 20% more power, has 46% less particulate matter, is 20% more efficient and emits 20% less black smoke.
Companies have tried to differentiate themselves with additives, giving a name to each additive. Each company reformulates the additive as they see fit. Some do it to clean the engine, others for the environment and so on, but no one has ever dealt with water. Water is a complex product affecting the operation of diesel and petrol engines. We have done very thorough work on neutralising the water in our products, which makes them unique.
Water is generated by vehicles as they generate condensation in the fuel tanks. When that water gets into the engines, it generates particulate matter. Our additives minimise the negative impact of water. Furthermore, by controlling water, we also help the environment by reducing the emission of particulate matter.

Tell us about Zeuss’s position in the lubricant business.
We offer very high-quality lubricants. Our products are synthetic rather than mineral products. The Zeuss brand of lubricants can compete against any number-one brand in the country and internationally. We aim to establish it as a very important brand in Colombia’s service stations.
We make the formulas and manufacture the lubricants in the USA. Then, we import them and package them here. The product is made for conditions in Colombia, as we acknowledge that a vehicle can travel from 2,200 metres in Bogotá to sea level in a matter of hours. Vehicles react to altitude and temperature, and when working with lubricants, one has to take that into consideration.
Moreover, one of the big problems with engines in Colombia is sludge generation. All lubricants are made according to international standards to prevent that. Today we import around 80,000 gallons per year. We are still a relatively small player, but our aim is to position ourselves as providing the best lubricants in service stations in Colombia.

What next steps does the company plan to take to strengthen its market position?
In the next five years, Zeuss will grow by double digits. We want to become the number one wholesale company in Antioquia. That is a very important milestone. In addition to this, we are serving the B2B [business-to-business] sector in the country.
We already have the storage infrastructure, and there is another project in Sebastopol in the pipeline which is nearly ready to be built. All this makes us a very relevant B2B company. We are serving the oil and gas sector and also the mining industry, where we are targeting large-scale miners.
Apart from this, we are aiming to double our Estinsa network in the coming years. We inaugurated three more retail stations in 2024, and we are now working to technologically and digitally unify all our retail stations and link them with our clients.
At the same time, our aim is to analyse the data extracted from our clients in order to offer them the best tailor-made services. In this way, we also retain clients and strengthen loyalty. Hand in hand with this is our aim to launch our 4.0 image, which is coming soon.
Lastly, we see a great opportunity in power generation and energy efficiency. Namely, we are looking to invest in solar panels to generate our own energy and also to be more energy efficient across all our operations. We are committed to ZER’s group purpose: we mobilise Colombians’ dreams.

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