Why 100 Petrol Stations Have Closed in Tanzania and How to Make Sure Yours Succeed

The Kalibrate’s market study reveals that 100 petrol stations in Tanzania have closed, and 150 petrol stations were under construction in 2021. The question lingered in my mind is, what’s behind those statistics? More specifically, why does the petrol stations project fail?

What might you guess are the top reasons? Lack of sufficient capital? Competition? Regulatory complaint challenges?

So let me begin to answer those questions: What does a petrol station’s failure mean?

You invest time, effort, and resources to build a new petrol station. You make that investment with the expectation that you will achieve desired results. You expect your petrol station to be profitable and popular in your trading area.

If you open a petrol station and the actual results are less or opposite of what you expected, that is what we call a petrol station project failure.

Most people believe that competent execution and experience are crucial to success in the petrol station business.

But the simple truth is that, although experience and competence are crucial to achieving lasting success in petrol station industry, they are powerless when applied to a location that does not attract sufficient customers.

Experience and competence often result in even bigger and more petrol station project failures because we tend to make bigger investments and set unrealistically high expectations.

Finding competent and well-trained staff, finding reliable suppliers, or even having good marketing and sound financial management is powerless when you build petrol stations in a non-strategic location.

Why Do Petrol Stations Fail?

The petrol station fails because most entrepreneurs make investment decisions based on hope, wobbly belief, and volatile opinion from friends, partners, and industry experts. Armed with enthusiasm and ca n’t-fail attitude, you make a big investment only to find out you have fallen into the trap of spending money and time on developing a petrol station where you have little chance of achieving bigger profits and revenue.

 

Data Beat Opinion

It would be best if you make data-driven decisions to spend time, energy, and money where you have the best chance of success. And you should collect your own data. But not just any old data, essentially other people’s data, because what happened to other people with their petrol station project does not necessarily apply to your locations.

. If an expert or partner gives you advice and can not support his opinion with sufficient data, you have little chance of winning in the industry.

The key to success in the petrol station is to collect your own data, and the data must be fresh, reliable, and relevant to your petrol station site and location.

I hope this helps.