A feminine approach at Engen Kempton Park - Supermarket.co.za

Forecourt storewatch
A feminine approach
at Engen Kempton Park
The site of the Engen Dealer of the Year in Kempton Park is all about personal relationships with clients and being the go-to in the community.
One of the very few women in the industry scooped
the Engen Dealer of the Year Award
By Michel Mack
A new challenge
Back in 2007 when the former Trek site,
subsequently rebranded as Engen, became
available for purchase, Oliphant was looking
for a new task after many years as a social
worker. Coming from an entrepreneurial
family, she decided to follow her sister’s
footsteps and enter the forecourt industry.
She then paid regular visits to the site to
observe whether it would provide a lucrative
business opportunity.
“I wanted to get a feel for the staff
and how the site was frequented before
I made my final decision. The staff was my
utmost priority because they were the key
to making this business successful. They
were motivated and the site definitely had
a lot of potential. I therefore decided to go
ahead with it,” says Oliphant. Shortly after
her taking over, Engen refurbished the site
into its new ‘on-the-go’ design concept,
achieving a universal look and feel amongst
its large network, comprising 1 200 stations
around the country.
Excellent ratings in customer
service, facilities and
presentation, as well as strict
health, safety, environment and
quality standards brought the
owner of the Engen Quick Shop
in Kempton Park the honours
of being awarded Engen
Dealer of the Year. Owner and
former social worker, Thabang
Oliphant takes a unique and
successful approach in dealing
with her staff, as well as in
building relationships with her
customers and her community.
Overcoming reservations
Oliphant’s major challenge was to make
a success out of her business as a woman
in a predominantly male industry. “Many
customers had difficulties accepting that a
woman is now running this petrol station
and expected the service to deteriorate,”
she says. She gained the respect of the
community by keeping up high standards
and secured a long-term customer base
by building personal relationships with her
cus tomers. She knows what her regular
cus tomers want to buy and gets their
purchases ready before they even drive onto
the forecourt or walk into the store. She
speaks English, Afrikaans and several African
languages and is therefore able to address
almost all in their home language.
Supporting the community
“My passion is to support my staff and the
people in the community in reaching their
dreams in life,” says Oliphant. If approached
by either, she takes time to sit down with
them and talk through their problems. If
they are uncertain about their future, she
enables them to attend career counselling
at university in order to make the right
career choice. She also assists illiterate
parents in bringing their kids through
the formalities of school and university
applications. She equips her staff and
wholesalebusiness Issue 3, 2012 27

Forecourt storewatch
members of the community with what
they need to apply for jobs or studies that
help them move closer to their dream jobs.
Recently, a girl who struggled to finance her
studies approached her asking for help. She
then hired her temporarily to enable her to
earn the money that she needed.
One of her staff members just finished
his matric. “Sadly for him, being a petrol
attendant was the only job he was able to
find. I invested a lot in him so that he too
can reach his potential. I hired him to give
him the opportunity to gain experience and
grow closer to what he wants to do in life,”
she says.
Cigarettes generate 20% of the turnover within
the C-store. Their prices are kept just above the
supermarket next door so that the Engen will
remain a viable alternative for customers.
The C-store alone roughly generates R600 000
turnover per month. The offering is still basic
but will expand in the future to optimally cater
for all customers.
The Snackzone offers customers coffee, pies
and cookies. Most items are sold on Sundays,
while people wash their cars after church.
Motivated staff
As a social worker at heart, Oliphant puts
above average emphasis on the physical
and mental well-being of her 28 staff
members. Most of them come from the
nearby township of Tembisa. They receive
financial incentives from her, as well as
from Engen directly when targets are
reached, helping them to stay motivated.
Additionally, Oliphant regularly treats them
with cake or other small goodies to lighten
the atmosphere. She works very closely
with them, dispensing petrol and serving
customers herself as well. “I don’t sit back
when the forecourt is busy but help where I
am needed. This shows the staff that there
is no ‘us and them’, but only ‘us’. We can all
do it and work together,” she says.
In dealing with problems, she takes a very
different approach. “As a social worker,
I am concerned about the person. Of course
the business is important but it is also very
important to me that my people are looked
after well. If, for example, they have an
important personal issue to sort out and
need a day off or advice, they can come to
me, tell me their story and we will discuss it
and find a solution,” she says.
She also intervenes immediately when
forecourt staff members have to deal with
outraged customers after making a mistake,
because she doesn’t want them to take
the customer’s careless words personally
or have a lasting negative effect on them.
“I always emphasise to the staff that I am
here to protect them and that I am there for
them. If they are faced with more than they
can handle, it can break them permanently
and I need to prevent that,” says Oliphant.
Most staff members enter the business
untrained and receive training on-site
from specially dispatched Engen trainers
and senior staff. Once the job-specific
training and customer handling training
is completed, new employees shadow
their supervisors until they deem them fit
to work independently. The atmosphere
amongst the staff is very positive and some
have been working on the site for over
20 years. “I always refer to my staff as a
team. A shift doesn’t make the business
successful, but a well-oiled team is the core
of success. It was therefore very important
to me to mould them into a team and
teach them to work together and look out
for each other,” she says.
Owner, Thabang Oliphant emphasises the
importance of working closely with her staff.
“We can all do it. We can work together.”
Josephine has been working on the site for
over 16 years. Most staff members stay for long
periods of time due to the positive atmosphere
on the forecourt.
Taking ownership
Shrinkage is currently at 3.5% but used to
be quite a significant problem in previous
years. CCTV and armed response are
available for increased security and stock is
protected by a daily, weekly and bi-weekly
stock count schedule. If any irregularities
are discovered, the schedule is adjusted to
quickly identify the source of shrinkage.
For Oliphant, her staff is the most
important asset in shrinkage control.
“One time, I called them all in and explained
to them that the significant shrinkage at the
time affects the amount of money
I have for the business. If I have less money
available, then less or no money is left for
incentives and treats for the staff.
28 wholesalebusiness Issue 3, 2012

28 staff members are employed at the site. Owner, Thabang Oliphant, emphasises
that looking after her staff is one of the most important aspects of the business.
Store: Engen
Location: Kempton Park
Owner: Thabang Oliphant
Staff complement: 28
C-store turnover:
R600 000 per month
They needed to understand that it
affects them,” she explains. Afterwards,
shrinkage decreased significantly and staff
went out of their way to be part of the
solution. When certain customers who
were known to steal arrived at the store, all
forecourt staff would walk inside the store,
demonstrating that this person’s intentions
were known.
Free car washes are available to SAPS
vehicles to increase police presence and
establish visible security. The site has also
become known as a place for security
company staff to come to if they need hot
water to make a cup of coffee, for example.
Together with the community policing
forum (CPF), Oliphant also previously
hosted an annual braai for police and
security staff on National Police Day.
Convenient and competitive
The forecourt offering is complete with
50ppm diesel and a car wash located
at the back of the site. Product offering
within the convenience store (C-store) is
currently focused on the basics with bread,
chips, sweets, cookies, car products, basic
medicines and cold drinks – in line with
Engen’s assortment requirements. Engen
laid out requirements for 80% of its forecourt
stores’ product assortment to ensure
a competitive range, and leaves it up to the
store operator to fill the other 20% with
products relevant to their target market.
The store includes the Snackzone bakery,
offering pies and coffee to the customers.
The owner is busy in negotiations with
Engen to upgrade the bakery and make a
wider array of products available through
the Engen Corner Bakery concept.
Oliphant’s site has a very mixed customer
base with middle class residential customers
and large numbers of passers-by from
Tembisa, en-route from the nearby train
station to their workplaces. She included
items like small polony rolls, atchar, snuff
tobacco, as well as R5 airtime vouchers,
which are not available at the local
supermarket. That way she ensures that she
caters for the latter customer base as well.
“We are keeping our prices low in order to
remain competitive with the supermarket
across the road. Most filling stations make
the convenience of a 24-hour store an
expensive service, but we decided against
that. Our cigarettes, for example, are only
marginally more expensive than in the
supermarket as we have slightly higher
operating costs. This way our convenient
store remains a viable alternative for the
customers, who are rewarding these efforts,”
says Oliphant.
Convenience sells
Roughly 300 000 litres of fuel are sold on
the forecourt every month with steadily
rising figures. The C-store itself generates
approximately R600 000 per month.
Bestselling items are cigarettes, accounting
for 20% of the store’s turnover, as well
as airtime and prepaid electricity, which
together account for another 30% of the
store’s turnover. A Lotto outlet is also
available to customers. Cold drinks, energy
drinks, chocolate and popcorn are most
popular within the grocery section.
“The advantage for the customers here is
not having to stand in long lines when they
just quickly want to get a box of cigarettes
or electricity on the way home from work.
They are also not limited to opening hours
of a supermarket, which makes the prepaid
electricity, in particular, a vital asset to our
store,” she says.
The site caters for a wide range of customers.
Middle class residents visit the site as often as
passer-by traffic from the train station nearby.
Sometimes more unusual customers can be
spotted as well.
Growing further
Going forward, Oliphant wants to include
a fast food franchise into the site. “Many
customers come here on Sundays to have
their cars washed after church and it would
be great for them if they can just enjoy
a nice breakfast as a family while we are
taking care of their car,” she says. She also
wants to expand the offering within the
C-store to better cater for the different
needs of all her customers.
She concludes: “In our business we are all
about personal relationships and helping our
customers with what they need at whatever
time of day. Being a mom myself certainly
helps me understand the pressure many
people are under. So when, for example,
a mother is late dropping off her kids at
school, she can quickly refuel, drop her kids
off and then come back to pay. I also want
the community to know that this is a place
to come to when they need help.”
wholesalebusiness Issue 3, 2012 29