South Africa’s Deputy Shell agrees 2nd major Black Empowerment deal with Thebe Investments Corporation01/07/2008 Shell South Africa has announced the sale of 25 percent of its stake in the Durban refinery operated by SAPREF to Thebe as part of its commitment to Black Economic Empowerment (BEE). The Durban refinery is Africa’s largest refinery and is jointly owned by Shell and BP. Shell South Africa’s relationship with Thebe began in 1998 through its subsidiary Tepco Petroleum. Shell signed its first Black Economic Empowerment agreement in 2002, through which Thebe acquired 25% of Shell’s downstream marketing activities in South Africa. Speaking at the dinner to celebrate the conclusion of the deal last night, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said that this deal was one of a few major important ones in the industry. She added that perseverance of both Shell and Thebe had finally paid off as negotiations on this deal started more than five years ago and at one point she had flown to the then Shell headquarters in London to get a “progress report” on the negotiations. The Deputy President said the Shell-Thebe deal was built on shared trust and both companies realised that it offered mutual benefits. Xavier le Mintier, Executive Vice President for Shell’s Downstream businesses in Africa said: “Shell South Africa is proud to have Thebe as its BEE partner and I am delighted that we have been able to finalise this second agreement. Our 10-year relationship is built on shared values of honesty, integrity and respect. I believe together we can build on this foundation to benefit the communities we serve.” The agreement signed yesterday between Shell and Thebe will not impact on employees nor customers. Shell will continue to deliver competitively priced products, safely and responsibly, as it has always done.
Well, here I am again, and still not quite getting over the fact that our ‘partners’ at Shell have hoofed us after 14 years of operation.
It now seems that many of the distributors across the country are up in arms with Shell about their new improved service plan. LMHO. The way that this has been done is so clandestine in nature that the stench that is being left behind is putrid.
I have spoken to other distributors and they also feel the same way that I do. Some are taking the legal route and others are adopting a wait and see policy to this. They sent us this letter telling us of their brand new plan and how it would benefit us, quite honestly you would think that a big corporate would have the money to at least make the spin seem believable. Instead it was the biggest amount of drivel that I have ever read. I wonder if she was doing it with a straight face.
Well, I’ll leave for here and post some more when I have the energy.
This post is more of just trying to let off some steam at the way that big corporates deal with us little guys.
First some background:
Our company has been a official Shell lubricants distributor for the last 14 years. Suddenly out of the blue it is decided by the gentleman and ladies who sits in the porcelain tower at Shell head office, to scrap us an official distributor. No discussion, no consultation. No nothing! Just a impersonal boot from them.
Now, I actually shouldn’t be to surprised by this tactic of theres, they have proved themselves on a number of occasions to be completely and utterly out of touch as to what happens in a small business.
The details as to how this new plan of theirs actually works will be posted at a latter stage.
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