Five New Trends Changing Fuel Station Industry in Tanzania and East Africa

The rising demand for fuel in Tanzania and East Africa has placed an important requirement on the entrepreneurs and investors to increase the number of petrol stations significantly.

With governments’ urging to meet the growing need, entrepreneurs are already working to build new petrol stations that could add to the fuel supply.

Here are five trends that are crucial to the future of the petrol station industry in Tanzania and East Africa

1. Competition is intensifying year by year. Competition with rival petrol stations has been intensifying. The urban areas are crowded with many petrol stations. As the petrol station industry becomes more competitive, the chances of success depend increasingly on adopting strategies that are firmly based on an accurate assessment of the entrepreneur’s position and the opportunity  

2. Unreliability of fuel at petrol stations. Supply chain delays are a huge challenge to many petrol station operators. Today it’s normal to visit a petrol station to fill your car tank with fuel only to find the specific fuel is unavailable. Weaknesses are often most apparent to independent petrol station operators, who do not always have sufficient capital and resources to ensure sufficient stock availability. So if you want to gain a competitive advantage in the fuel station industry, ensure all the time availability of products, especially in the period when others don’t

3. Shortage of appropriate managers. Operating sustainable petrol station business can’t be realized in a day. Therefore only after years of experience can it be possible to obtain operational know-how on the management of petrol stations. From this viewpoint of experience accumulation, new entrants are in disadvantageous positions compared to existing petrol stations and large oil marketing companies.

So if you are new comer establishing a new petrol station, recruiting experienced managers and employees is critical to successful petrol station operation.

4. Hostile relationships with rival petrol station is getting stronger

As I said earlier, there is stiff competition in the industry. Affected by the surge  

in fuel prices, the hostile relationships 

between rivals are becoming even stronger. And this is symbolized 

by the competition of price reduction in the industry

5. Regulatory pressures.

The petrol station business is susceptible to government action and regulations. Regulatory authorities want to minimize the petrol station business’s environmental and safety problems.  

 Complying with local regulatory authorities’ environmental, health and safety is key to managing a successful petrol station business. 

Seek professional help from an experienced industry consultant to help you plan and design petrol stations that meet local standards of environmental health and safety