ZUVA Petroleum has rebranded over 10% of its branches countrywide and feedback from customers has been positive, chief executive officer Bethwell Gumbo has said.
BY VICTORIA MTOMBA
Zuva has a $20 million fund it secured from Nedbank London to refurbish its 72 sites across the country.
“We have done 10 service stations in Harare. We will start other towns next month and we hope to finish by year end,” he said.
Gumbo said during the first five months of this year consumption of fuel had been going down.
“Motorists are not buying as much as they used to. We believe the market shrunk by 5% during the five months to May this year,” he said.
The fuel sector has been hit hard by cheap imports that have made local players fail to compete.
The cheap imports are coming from all over the world as the sellers are attracted to the use of the multi-currency.
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Zuva said the rebranding would see its market share rising to above 30%. There are 18 players in the fuel industry.
Zuva is into aviation and liquid petroleum gas and has 16 depots that are in operation.
Last year, a consortium led by Mushayavanhu snapped up a controlling shareholding in Zuva from Masawara in a deal worth close to $30 million.
Zuva Petroleum was once BP & Shell Marketing Services. It rebranded to Zuva after Masawara acquired BP & Shell assets in 2010.
